


Experiment 26-9-13

by KatsukkyKitsune



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: AddingTagsAsIGoBecauseSuspense! - Freeform, Angst, Blood and Gore, DibIsDumb, Family, Family Problems, Horror, Suspense, ZimBreaksHisPAK, anxiety problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:42:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 56,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24422974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatsukkyKitsune/pseuds/KatsukkyKitsune
Summary: While on a heated fight against Dib, Zim manages to actually break a vital part of his PAK and, upon calling his beloved Tallests for assistance, they decide to tell him the truth of his mission not knowing the full extent of Zim's damage and the snowball effect they're creating.
Comments: 42
Kudos: 43





	1. Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Dib is 16 years-old when this fic starts and he and Zim have known each other for eight years now (and if you're good at math then You'll know that Dib was eight when Zim arrived on Earth in this AU) and while I know it is not canon as Dib was actually 12, I reached the conclusion that a relationship so complicated like theirs needed more time than just 4 years to properly develop without major events. So, the best I could do was make Dib younger.
> 
> And for those who don't like the fourth wall break this chapter has I just made it so this fic will have something less heavy at the begging because the Storm is just about to start...

**-Chapter one-**

**Storm**

* * *

The ever so present stars of the night sky are currently being hidden by thick, pitch-black clouds. Thunders furiously reverberate through the city, falling from the menacing clouds and hitting everything that dared stay on their way as if to make sure that everyone knew about their presence and the power that mother nature had over the puny planet.

A clear statement never to be forgotten.

The winds of this huge three-day-long storm are not something to be disregarded as well, being strong enough to take down trees, shaking houses and even big buildings in a failed attempt to get inside.

In the meantime, small raindrops were pouring nonstop from the sky. They are fast and strong enough to hurt anyone who would dare to step out in the open, cutting like a horde of a million knives going through unprotected skin.

All in all, everything happens as if God himself was trying to punish humanity for their stupidity.

But even though this huge storm -that manages to scare every single living being into hiding, is happening two figures could be seen upon the rooftop of one old and rather tall building. Anyone who would manage to see them there would say that they _have_ to have some sort of problem, or even question their sanity…

_But everyone has their reasons. No?_

_In this case the reasons would be the ones of Dib Membrane, 16 years old, and paranormal investigator, who is currently involved in a case for eight years now where he tries to…_

_**...** _

_\- What's written here? Is this correct…? Hey is this correct? Yes!? Oh well… *cof cof*-_

...Stop an _alien_ invader… That's… _**Trying**_ to invade Earth for the past…

... **Eight** …

... **Years** …

 _Aaaand_ as you can imagine he is currently the nut job from the city… He's as well son of the most brilliant man in the whole world: **Professor Membrane himself!**

 _\- Now how did_ _**this** _ _happen…? A brilliant man with a nuts son… -_

\- Hey! Stop messing around and keep writing!-

* _Something being thrown_ *

 _\- Ouch! there was no need for_ _**THAT** _ _! Whoa okay I'm writing! I'm writing!-_

_**...** _

The other figure that is currently fighting Dib is Zim Irken, currently a normal teenager that was transferred to America eight years ago, having some issues with growth and a special kind of condition that gives him a green coloured skin, making him noseless and earless as well… He even has shown the.. _Pink eye_ condition before…

**...**

_\- What a sick kid… I pity him a little bit… But he has a strange name, what language is that…?_ _**Ouch** _ _! Right right I'm writing… Where was I again… Oh yeah!-_

So, they're currently fighting on the rooftop while the sky quite literally falls on their heads…

**...**

"You're never going to win Zim! I'm going to **show them all** about you!" Dib screams to his nemesis. He has cuts and bruises here and there but the flowing blood gets constantly washed away by the strong -and rather stingy, raindrops.

Strangely enough, though, he has a big smile.

"Ha! You wish Dib- **stink**! You know **Zim** will **win**! It's just a matter of time before **Zim** unleashes DOOM UPON YOUR DOOMED…EHHH.. **FACE**!" Zim screams. He too has bruises and, like Dib, has every single blood drop being constantly washed away, having a big smile of his own as well.

They both start running towards each other at the same time while having what can only be described as maniac smiles on. As they reach the other a heated fight begins by using teeth, nails, talons, punches, kicks and whatever else you can think of while rolling around on the wet and rough concrete roof floor.

It's hard to say who has the upper hand in the dark, even more so with the strong storm, but it is clear that more blood is drawn mixing and merging between pinks and reds that soon enough disappear. Everything was being cleaned by the rain as if it had never happened...

Finally they got off each other, looking eye to eye. Both of them have a strong maniac look as their eyes shine with the blinding glint of life.

_It is almost as if they only lived their lives for this single moment._

Zim starts sizzling, just a reminder that his paste is wearing off faster with the storm. His maniac smile grows even more - _if possible_ , as he knows he needs to finish this fight _and fast_.

As for Dib, he's trembling with cold and his body -principally his muscles, start to fail him. It's not even slightly healthy for a human to be outside in temperature and conditions like those. He too needs to finish this right now if he doesn't want to hear from his father again about the need to avoid getting hypothermia and pneumonia, staying grounded _and_ sick for some days where he wouldn't be able to spy on Zim.

_They both know what the other is thinking…_

**This ends now.**

Alien and human alike prepare to attack, they enter into their respective positions and wait for the signal…

_\- What signal you may ask? Well, when they feel with both, mind and body, that they're ready-_

Looking at each other in the eye they can feel the tension while reading the other's mind and predicting every single movement that can be done…

_Then, a bolt of lightning struck the street far below._

Dib is the first one who moves, running as fast as he can for Zim and aiming a punch right at his head. If done correctly he can either pop out one eye or hit his antennae, which would make the alien unstable long enough for the investigator to immobilize him as he knows for a fact that his enemy avoids opening his PAK when there's a lot of water nearby, or if it's raining.

Zim on the other hand knows where Dib plans to strike and decides to keep his ground, letting Dib come to him and getting ready to avoid the blow.

As Dib meets Zim he throws the punch right as the alien predicted, missing for less than an inch and just brushing his right fist at the fake hair. The cyan and the maroon bug-like eye -as he lost one of his contacts in the middle of the fight, glinted with craziness as he knows Dib missed his chance and now is his turn to give the final blow.

 _But what both boys failed to notice in the dark was that Zim was_ _**way** _ _too close to the roof edge._

Dib loses his balance as he misses his target, going some feet past Zim -showing how much power he gave this single punch, and hitting his tibia on the small wall of the old roof and finally beginning his free fall towards the street below that can't be seen in the dark.

Time slows down and the glint of crazy happiness Zim has disappeared as he fastly notices what is going to happen, he can't let his nemesis be defeated by something stupidly like this! **He** is going to **defeat** Dib _not_ _some_ _**stupid**_ _fall!_

With this final thought in mind Zim reaches out and grabs the teen by his coat, rotating 180 degrees while using his momentum to pull his enemy, putting himself in the exact same position Dib was just less than a second ago.

The human notices what's going on a second too late, falling to the roof floor while seeing Zim missing his balance and falling from the building instead of him.

The investigator tries to get up and run to his nemesis aid -as he can't be in debt with the evil lizard, but a strong luff of air appears out of nowhere, getting the small alien even more distant from the building and pushing the teen against the small wall. Almost managing to make him fall again.

_The alien starts his free fall from the eleven-store building._

Zim gets just a tiny little bit more desperate than what he should - _as usual_ , which prompts him to use his PAK legs, even if he shouldn't with the current weather. He tries to attach himself to something but, at the same moment, a strong gust of wind appears out of nowhere, launching his small body away and, in turn, making him lose his timing _and_ his chance to grab the building with the metallic spider-like legs. To top it all off the four legs retract to the PAK that now refuses to open, needing to deal with all the water inside of it.

Time seems to get back to normal for both of them. Dib can't see Zim anymore with the low lighting of the night and the strong storm, just being able to hear a small and metallic _*Thud*_ over the sound of the pouring rain coming from the street below.

Wanting to see what happened to Zim, the teen runs down the building emergency stairs as fast as physically possible for him, as his whole body is still complaining.

The young boy reaches the last steps and suddenly the rain starts to get a little lighter -after three days storming like that as if the storm decided to stop and see what happened as well. Soon after he reaches the side of the building where Zim fell, fastly finding the alien on the sidewalk across the street, just a reminder of how strong the wind was some seconds ago.

Getting way more worried than he should the self-proclaimed Earth saviour manages to get to his nemesis side, he panics _just_ a little bit as he sees the bloody mess the floor turned into…

The sidewalk where Zim fell is painted with his pink blood while his body now has a sickly pale shade of green. Some pinkish bones are showing at his left leg -or the alien equivalent to bones, which are ripping the meat and muscles of the small body, showing themselves in a harmful manner while Zim is barely breathing, whistling while doing so…

_\- Don't ask me how he whistles without a nose… I don't know... -_

Meanwhile, for Zim, the world is nothing more than pure white blinding pain. His body feels like it's on fire but, at the same time, it is being boiled in a pan full of hot, earth disgusting water. _And_ his PAK is giving him all kinds of warnings and danger signals but he can't think straight enough to try and assert the damages because of the _flicking_ pain.

The PAK then decides to chose what is needed to do by itself - _As if it never did it before with this stupid host…_ and makes the first move by getting the strongest painkillers it currently has into the Irken body.

As Dib reaches Zim the painkillers are already in effect and he is trying to get a hold of his senses back. But Dib doesn't know that.

The investigator looks at Zim's body without knowing what to do, getting more worried than what he probably should and thus resulting in him doing what any teenager human would do: speaking before thinking about it…

Which results in him telling some… Stuff…

_\- *snickers* -_

"Oh shit shit shit shit! **SHIT**! Zim, you can't fucking die on me like this _dammit!_ " The teen screams while scooping the alien body into his arms and subconscious trying to protect it from the rain.

"Fuck Zim you're not supposed to die like this… I'm the one going to kill you! You hear me you fucking green ALIEN. **LIZARD THINGY!** **YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE LIKE THIS! IF YOU DO I'M GOING TO FUCKING RESURRECT YOU JUST TO KILL YOU! YOU BASTARD!** " Dib screams his lungs out while holding the body even closer to himself, the rain starts getting even lighter and finally turning into a small drizzle.

The clouds start to move, giving enough room for the hidden moon to shine upon the teen and the alien in what looks like a tragic scene.

**…**

_\- Don't be mad at me please I'm just writing… ;-; -_

-Yeah right..-

- _You're too smart for meeee! I was forced to do it by my mind!-_

**…**

Then, he feels a small movement. " _Stop screaming at Zim's lekku worm…_ " the voice is small, cracked and looks very fragile, but is enough for Dib to hear.

The teen lets out a worried sigh "Zim! Are you okay?" He asks.

"HA!" Zim tries to let out a little mocking laugh but ends up coughing. " _Yes. Zim is fine… a fall like that is nothing compared to what I endured at the training…_ " The small alien speaks, his voice betraying what he is saying.

The rain is almost over now so Dib decides to stop leaning over Zim, finally noticing what he was doing and getting as far as possible without hurting the already beaten up looking alien. " _Well, if you say so…_ **Wait!** What am I doing? I'm not concerned about you! Not even a little bit!"

" _Obviously you're not_ " Zim speaks sarcastically.

- _Yes, he learned to do that over the years_ -

The investigator looks to the alien and sighs deciding to call it a day. He's already soaked up and probably getting heavily sick in the next few days. With this in mind Dib gets up from the wet ground, looking at Zim once more and envying his body's regenerative properties.

"Want me to get you back to your base?" The teen suddenly asks.

* * *

_Over the years the human and the alien ended up with a sort of twisted friendship, don't get me wrong they're still mortal enemies, but they ended up with an unspoken agreement where they wouldn't kill the other._

_At least not yet…_

_Zim concluded that he would only kill Dib after he saw the planet he swore to protect being completely wiped out of existence as his final revenge against the dirty human child._

_And Dib… Well he doesn't want his planet destroyed because it's his home, but he learned a lot over the years spying on Zim and decided that he isn't the bad villain he once saw him as when he was just an eight-year-old kid._

_So, they kind of stopped trying to kill each other over the years. Immobilizing, kidnapping, or even experimenting on was on the clear, but not killing._

_**Never killing.** _

* * *

Zim looks to his enemy, he's still hurting pretty badly but he manages to get his arm up and refuses Dib's proposal. "No, GIR's already coming to get me." He speaks, his voice is way better now and his green colour is coming back to normal. But then a sudden idea struck the drugged Irken mind. "Or are you _worried_ about me? _Huh,_ _**Dib?**_ " The Irken asks with a sly smile.

" **What?!** No, I'm not worried about you! I jus- Just don't want to be in debt with you! You. You green **LIZARD**!" Dib screams with disgust, but the smile on his face betrays his words.

"Yeah right... You should go back to your house now disgusting-smeet. I don't want your horrible worm sister showing up at Zim's base asking questions again" Zim speaks with a smile of his own.

Those smiles are nothing like the crazy ones they had in the fight. _No_. Those smiles are warm and truthful.

Dib lets out a small laugh. "Yeah you're probably right." With this, he begins his walk back home.

* * *

_Meet Rob._

Rob is a decent guy that has a beautiful wife and a great little daughter. He would love to spend more time with his family but he didn't finish college and now is stuck working as a trucker -a job that he _hates_ with his guts, but he still needs to do it in order to pay the bills.

_Basically, he's just another ordinary human struggling to live an ordinary life._

Now, the almost forty years old man normally is very kind, responsible and doesn't like to go at fast speeds with his old truck as he wants to live long enough to see his little daughter getting married. But today is a different day because he overslept more times than what he should during the workdays, thus getting himself late. And being late with a loaded cargo full of food is not the brightest of ideas as food expires rather easily. And if the food expires he will lose a big part of his payment for being late, something he can't afford right now.

So, without much more options, he decided to drive during the heavy storm. He even did what he normally wouldn't do and travelled as fast as possible with his old truck, ignoring the other truckers' advice and getting every single shortcut he knew, even through cities.

And one of the cities was the small town where the most brilliant scientist in the whole universe worked. What he didn't expect, though, was to see a small boy with black hair in the middle of the road so soon after the storm ended.

When Rob noticed the boy it was far too late, he didn't manage to stop the truck in time... Not wanting to get arrested and thrown in jail away from his family he decided to leave the crime scene as fast as possible.

He didn't even have the guts to look back at the boy he hit.

This night followed Rob for the rest of his life in his worst dreams because he knew…

_**He knew he had killed a little boy…** _


	2. Faithful Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter doesn't have gore as things will get started on the next one... This one is more about Dib's and Zim's thought process.

**-Chapter Two-**

**Faithful Night**

* * *

Dib was the first one who noticed what was going to happen. He saw the lights coming as his brief life passed through his eyes.

' _It's coming too fast'_

' _It isn't going to stop'_

With only these two thoughts in mind, he _knew_ that he wouldn't be able to run, jump or even scream. There was nothing he could do and, at that moment, he _just_ knew...

 _**He knew** _ **that he was going to** _**Die** _

Just like that! **Puff!** And he is gone.

Maybe Zim _was_ right, after all, humans are a **stupid, useless** **and** **fragile** species that can't do _anything_ right…

They just sit down and do nothing when their own world is falling apart, they can't change themselves and their selfish ways even when the truth is right in front of their eyes…

The realization that he used his life to protect this stupid race and that he is part of it was shocking to him, nonetheless. But deep down he knew that he always thought that. It's not like anyone has ever tried to make him think otherwise.

But the worst part of it all was that Zim was right all along...

**Humans are a race that begs to be conquered**

With this last though Dib just accepted his death with the knowledge that Zim was going to win their little game… But he doesn't care anymore and, as far as he is concerned, the alien can kill them all… He's just **tired**

 _**Tired** _ _of everything…_

What the boy didn't expect was to be pushed aside and out of the way in the last millisecond possible. Being more exactly he was thrown away when **something** hit him briefly before the truck. But the truck clearly hit **something** as it made a very loud and high pitched shriek of metal on metal.

It took two seconds for Dib to realize what the truck had hit as his mind was still trying to grab the concept that he's still alive. The teen couldn't believe when his eyes showed him that his mind wasn't playing any tricks on him…

**Zim had saved his life**

**...**

_The building fall? Both of them knew that Dib was way too lucky while Zim was way too unlucky for him to die. He would most likely get a concussion, some broken bones (maybe a broken spine) and then he would be sent to the hospital just to be retrieved by his dad and given some kind of super drug or something that would get him up and running in a matter of weeks._

_Zim saving him was just his fucked up way to say that he wouldn't let the human stop their little game because of what the alien would call a small fall…_

_But the truck? It was way too fast and it surely was going to hit and kill Dib. Zim knew that as well. So, the alien forced his PAK legs to come out and jumped on the way, throwing Dib away in the process but being hit_ _**right at his PAK** _ _when he managed to almost get across the entire front of the truck with his momentum._

_The alien's back was everything left unprotected and in front of the fast-coming vehicle. The force of the truck was enough to throw him some feet away from the teenage boy that fall headfirst on the sidewalk._

**...**

Dib finally realizes that he should go see how Zim was doing as the alien _wasn't moving_

_**At all.** _

With this new information in mind, he fastly got up and ran towards Zim, this time **truly** worried about his worst nemesis. The alien was sprawled on the floor in what looked like a very uncomfortable position for his back as his PAK was forcing his body to bent in strange ways, lifting his thorax and hiding his broken left leg behind his right one.

As Dib comes closer to Zim he manages to see that his leg is still broken with showing bones, apparently nothing new there. The problem only shows itself for real when the teen almost throws himself on the floor besides the alien. He sees that

 _Zim's breathing has completely stopped_.

And the worst part of it is that the young investigator has no idea how the alien even manages to breathe or how long he can last.

Without much more options he starts scanning the alien body for any new scratches or signals of being hit and, upon not finding anything new, he decides to take a look at Zim's back, only then noticing that this was way more serious than what he could have ever hoped for as

_**Zim's PAK was badly cracked.** _

There's a small hole in the middle of the crack on the right side of his PAK, small pieces of what Dib could only describe as Irken tech were spread on the floor; he has no idea what they do though. The teen starts gathering every single broken piece as fast as he can while being the uttermost careful with everything.

The investigator knows _all too well_ what the PAK is at a basic level and that if it breaks... Well... Zim breaks as well. _Dying_ in the process...

_If he's not dead yet…_

After Dib was sure that every single piece was secure in his empty pocket he started to scan Zim once more, there was even more blood on the floor meaning that his heart - _or whatever he has_ , is still pumping.

' _This is probably a good sign right…?'_

Without knowing what to do the teen then prepares to carry Zim back home, as he knows the little bug is way heavier than what he looks like, and as he was gathering his nemesis from the floor a high pitched scream almost exploded his ears.

" **HI BIG HEADED BOY!** " Dib releases Zim carefully - _after almost dropping him_ , and turns around to the source of the painful sound. He simply can't understand how his nemesis managed to actually live all those years with this insane robot.

" _Hi GIR..._ " The boy sighs.

" _Whatcha happened to mastah?_ " The SIR unity, something Dib learned through the years, asked.

Dib, looking at Zim's body, concluded that he doesn't want to deal with one of GIR's infamous tantrums, so he lies.

Just a _little_ bit…

"Wel,l you see... Zim and I were fighting like we usually do, but Zim got tired and decided to take a little nap"

GIR stares at Dib with his blank cyan eyes as if he was looking directly at his soul…

Then the robot turns around and happily leaves his tongue hanging out. "OooOOohhh… Okay!" The broken SIR unity speaks without giving it a second thought.

Dib didn't even flinch at the blank stare of the broken robot as this is usual GIR behaviour and, as an investigator, he is kind of used to this sort of thing. He looks back at Zim with an idea forming in his mind.

GIR was already trying to run in circles while laying on the floor when Dib looked back at him.

"Hey GIR?" GIR immediately stops and turns at the human from the floor.

" _Yessssss?_ " The bot questions in a mix of excitement and happiness, with a little bit of crazy in the middle.

"Can you help me get Zim home?" Dib asks. GIR looks at him expectantly. "It's like a game and the winner… _Ehhhh_... Can use Zim's kitchen to make waffles… Yeah, that's right." Dib mumbles while looking at the bot's curious cyan eyes, trying to bribe him into help carrying Zim.

" **Yayyyyyyyyy! IMA GONNA MAKE SOME WAFFLES!** " GIR screams, then he gathers Zim from the floor as if he was nothing more than a big sack of potatoes. Soon after he's running to their house/base general direction.

Dib sees the action and feels pain for Zim as he has a freaking broken leg and exposed bones, but this is the fastest way he can think of getting Zim out of the drizzle and into his house.

" _Sorry computer…_ " Dib grumbles under his breath while running after the crazy bot.

* * *

Upon reaching the alien base Dib meets with his first challenge: Convincing the alien house A.I to let him in.

" **Okay!** What about an update to your hardware processors? I know Zim hasn't upgraded it for some time now!" Dib screams hiding behind the fence as the house gnomes were trying to hit him with the plasma guns hidden in their eyes.

Zim's body is currently on the floor in front of his door as GIR left him there and went inside to make waffles…

Computer can't physically hurt his _master_ - _even if he wants very badly to do so some times_ , but he is able to let Zim's body lying there, not giving it a damn while using the security protocols as an excuse to not gather him from the ground.

As for Dib, the Computer has a hate and love relationship with the human boy as he is the only one who (properly) updates his systems when it's manually required, but the human child keeps telling GIR that he can make a mess and just runs off when it's time to clean it, not even starting about that time when he tried to plant some bugs on his mainframe…

"Add a bigger memory and a cleanup to my CPU processors! And don't even think about putting bugs on me this time! **Then** **I'll think about it.** " The alien tech scoffs.

"Alright! Alright! Just let me in and find out what is wrong with Zim!" Dib let out a _manly_ scream when a laser managed to burn part of his hair.

 **Finally,** the lasers stopped shooting, giving the investigator a chance to look over the fence. After making sure nothing was trying to kill him he got up and promptly gathered Zim's body from the floor, keeping his comments about the house manners to himself…

"I don't even know why you care about him at this point" Computer suddenly spoke when Dib entered the strange-looking house, he was in the talking mood then...

The teen is still dumbfounded as to how no one managed to see that this house is everything but normal.

"Well… He actually saved me from a truck hit-and-run. I simply don't want to be in debt with him" Dib answers while looking around. Every time he enters this house it feels like something is out of place… Other than the obvious.

"Zim actually _saved you_? Oh my hardware, now **THAT** is something I need to see to believe" Dib walks to the middle of the living room and Computer activates the hidden elevator, leading the teen into the lowest floors of the huge underground structure.

"Yeah… I didn't believe it myself… But here I am" Dib is still looking around while talking with not much interest, the elevator is made with some type of pinkish glass that lets you see the soil and the huge rooms that exist -if you're lucky enough to pass through one of them.

When they reach the medical bay the house A.I used it's metallic arms and cables to carefully (at least for him) get Zim from Dib, putting him inside an empty and rather small glass container. Red, pink, purple and green lights appear from nowhere and start scanning different parts of the alien body, some cables attach themselves into the alien PAK ports, shoving data from them into the memory banks of the alien base to be further analyzed.

Dib finds himself looking around once more during the process, it's not every day he can enter Zim's base without needing to be careful with his whereabouts.

The investigator takes a good look at the various test tubes that looked like they were used recently, as if something was inside before, some of them even having some strange coloured goo. He knows for a fact that Zim was searching and doing a lot of experiments on genetic modifications and breeding. Something about making a creature that would obey him and destroy the humans. Dib didn't manage to get much info on the experiments though. Now it would be a good time as any to do it...

"Hey, how's Zim's experiments on genetically modified creatures going?" The investigator asks out of the blue, now very interested in Computer's reply.

"Oh. So you do know about _that_ " The A.I retorts with a concentrated voice, he's probably using a lot of his processors to compare the scans and results as fast as possible just to be rid of it… Or he's just using them to do something else… Who knows?

" _Yeah_... I've known that for two months now, I think. But I never managed to find much about it..." Dib explains looking again at the test tubes, it didn't seem that anything big enough to be concerning was created.

"Well. I can't tell you much, as you know, but I can say that so far most of it has been just huge failures… You shouldn't need to worry about it for the next… I don't know... three months or so…" The machine answers. " _Oh and here are the results.._." The A.I announces, not giving a chance for Dib to ask anything else about the experiments.

" _Annnd?_ " Dib questions curiously about the results.

" _Hmm?_ you want to know about it?" The house answers with a question of its own but before Dib could answer it decides to speak again. "Alright… But first I think we should wake _him_ up..." With this said the tank that Zim was in started to fill up with a green/bluish goo. A red light turned on while the tank was being filled up and a small and circular metal cover that was perfectly fit for the small container locked the top of it.

When the red light changed to green a very strong electric shock was sent through the cables into Zim's PAK, forcing it to wake its host up by doing a basic reboot.

"Holy shit!" Dib squeaks alarmed while jumping back as he was rather near the tank.

"You didn't know that!?" The A.I asks with a mocking voice, mechanically laughing at the teen high pitched squeak.

"Yeah I knew they use electric discharges to wake up but I didn't expect it to be **that** strong of a charge!" Dib retorts calming his racing heart down while trying to hide his embarrassment.

As the Computer keeps making fun of Dib none of them noticed when Zim opened his eyes with a grunt that could actually be heard from outside. "He's awake" Computer decided to tell Dib.

" _What happened…?_ " The invader asks with a hoarse/groggy voice. He has a huge headache, his body hurts everywhere and he feels like he's floating.

"You were dead for some minutes so... _Welcome back to life!_ " Computer explains happily as confetti was poured in front of Zim's tank. The sarcasm is dipped like venom in its voice.

" **Wait what!?** " Dib and Zim exclaimed at the same time, the latter waking up faster with this information.

"Yeah didn't I tell you…? Oh well... He was dead for some time before the tank finished filling up…" The sadistic machine replies.

" _Zim I'm scared of your computer…_ " Dib whispers and Zim promptly ignores both comments, leaving the room in awkward silence.

"What's Zim's status report…?" The alien finally asks.

" _About that…_ " Computer started, making both of them uneasy. "You've managed to hit your PAK pretty badly… Twice as well… And that _actually_ did some damage on you!" The A.I seems impressed that something could actually damage the small but rather indestructible defective.

"Quit messing around and tell Zim what happened!" The alien gets angry at his house artificial intelligence for not giving him a direct answer.

" _So rude…_ " Computer scoffs. "You damaged sectors A-9QYI-M10-8 and Z-7PQW-345-JI02… Oh and your filter is almost fully down and barely functional… Which makes this an official 0000.9#125 protocol… The Tallest will be answering your call soon as I've been calling them since the results were ready… Have a _nice_ day _master_ …" With this the A.I presence on the room promptly disappears and a screen appears right in front of Zim showing that the Tallest were actually being called.

"You! get out of Zim's base in this instant **dirty-child!** " Zim screams -or at least tries to, with his gaze fixed on the screen but his talon pointing dramatically at Dib.

"What! Why?" The investigator asks. The invader shoots a ' _really_ ' look at Dib and the teen decides to leave the room, for now.

But against what Zim told him to, Dib stayed on the other side of the door -decided to bug the alien until he's not in debt with him anymore. This way Zim will end up telling him to do something stupid to pay his debt and leave only realizing that he could use it for one of his plans afterwards...

**...**

Zim was very anxious, to say the least. His Tallests have told him to specifically not call them more than one-fourth of Earth's rotation period at a time, unless he has a recording of a failed plan to send them, or if he's dealing with another invasion of bees. For some reason…

But they are the Tallest, they don't need to explain themselves.

**-Everything they do is for the good of the Empire-**

The little Irken looks at the screen expectantly waiting for the call to patch through. If what his computer told him is correct Zim has a huge problem in his talons…

But it's not like he can actually see _that_ as a problem as he can totally fix it! Or maybe weaponize it for the good of the Empire! That looks like a good plan!

* * *

Red and Purple were having a rather pleasant day at the massive, they had already thrown seven small Irkens out of the airlock, used the canon sweep on a recently conquered planet and they saw the Resisty making a fool of themselves by almost destroying their own fleet while trying to attack the Irkens _small_ warships.

So, they're essentially having one of the best days in the year so far.

"Ummm… My Tallest?" A _not-so-annoyingly-small_ technician comes to them as Purple was trying to find out how many donuts he could fit in his mouth at the same time. Both of them were inside a small private room they had near the bridge of the Massive. The room basically contained a red sofa and a big-ass view of the exploding planets in their path.

"Yes…?" Red asks with a slightly annoyed voice, he doesn't want other Irkens bugging him and Purple when they're having their fun time.

"Well… We're receiving several calls from... _E-arf…_ We denied most of them but it just keeps calling again and again…"

" _Wuathh?!_ " Purple shouts with his mouth full of donuts, sending pieces of it at the technician's face.

" _Nooooohohoho_. Why _he_ again?! _He_ already called this month and it wasn't funny at all!" Red exclaims.

The three of them shudders at the memory…

"Should I block him from the calling list?" The technician asks not exactly sure on how to please his Tallests.

" _We shouldasee whathats agout_ " Purple tries to talk after swallowing _some_ of the donuts, it didn't work as well as he expected.

"Yeah, that **could** be funny… And we're already getting bored… So there's no reason to not give it a try right?" Red agrees because everything they did after the cannon sweep was to eat junk food and mess around.

**...**

As Red and Purple reached the bridge of the Massive, everyone in there welcomed them with salutes.

"Yes. Yes. We're awesome. We know it" Purple answers to the salutes with a small wave of his hand, not caring at all for their respect.

At least he's not spitting donuts at everyone's faces like last time...

"Answer the call already" Red speaks annoyed by the constant beeping while getting at his coworker's side. He tries to get a good spot to see Zim if he messed up again somehow.

The call is finally patched trough.

Red and Purple expected to see Zim in a strange suit trying to catch bees, a monstrous creature he created trying to eat his head, perhaps an energy blorp trying to end his life or even a _moose…_ Those horrible creatures.

* _shudders_ *

What they didn't expect though was to see the _indestructible invader_ in an SRT unity, used only when Irkens were at what could be called a very critical condition. All invaders had one with them just to be safe but normally when an Irken went in there the damages were dead serious.

" **AHHHH! SOMEONE HIDE HIS LEG FOR THE LOVE OF DONUTS!** " Purple screams when he saw Zim's broken leg. A technician fastly censored it out.

"Greetings my Tallest" Zim salutes weakly, he truly isn't all right. And this is enough to scare everyone in there…

"What happened to you, Zim?" Red asks, truly concerned and wanting to know what was capable of damaging this Irken…

_So he can use it on his enemies._

"Oh, nothing _major_ … Zim just wasn't very careful… With all the invader stuff Zim has been doing, Zim _may_ have neglected some resting time and was a _little bit_ tired causing a _small_ accident..."

Purple looks at Zim knowing that it is a lie as he would never admit that he created an accident on his own. Purple doesn't like the concept that there is something out there that can actually damage the defective and he is keeping the information from them…

"Are you sure this is what happened _Zimmmm_ …?" Red asks trying to bribe the _very-small-and-annoying_ Irken into telling the truth.

" _Yessss…_ " Zim looks away as his lekkus falls down and his face gets a little bit yellow.

He's lying for sure.

Purple opens his mouth to give the defect a piece of his mind about hiding stuff from them but Red interrupts him by putting his own arm in front of his coworker's chest, effectively silencing him.

"Alright. We _believe_ in you..." Zim looks VERY relieved with those words. "And we can suppose that you're calling us because you need something… Right?" Red then asks with a smirk, a plan forming inside his brilliant head.

Zim smiles and nods. "Oh yes, my Tallest. Zim needs some PAK parts to go back to his mission and launch **DOOM UPON THE HUMAN DOOMED HEADS!** " Zim speaks trying to appear normal and as if nothing happened because, after all, he needs to look strong in front of his great leaders.

Needless to say, his voice fails him when he shakes his fist at the end of the sentence; giving him a small coughing fit.

"So, care to say what do you need?" Red asks, Purple looks at him like he's crazy but Red signals to his coworker to keep quiet, promptly getting Purple to pout at him in a rather smeetish behaviour.

Zim looks even more nervous now. "Yes. I'll send the report my base has made right away sirs" The little defective speaks as he touches the glass of his tank that, upon turning into a keyboard, commands the base to send a report to the massive.

After finally receiving the data at his Irkpad -From a technician that transferred it to him after checking for any viruses, Red looks at it briefly with a huge and malicious smirk, having an idea of what is going on with the _invader_ PAK. "Alright. Purple and I will check on the report and decide what to do, just wait for a second…" Red says it smirking while pushing his coworker to the side, making a signal for the technicians to put the call on hold.

"What's the meaning of this Red!? You didn't even let me talk!" Purple complains when the technician confirms that they could talk without Zim hearing it.

"I know how we can end with this little defective once and for all!" Red speaks excitedly. All lekkus in the room turn to pay attention to the Tallests conversation.

As the technicians work there they can't avoid listening to things that others Irkens wouldn't even know about, but their work is very respected and wanted so they would never dare telling anything to anyone.

_What happens at the bridge stays at the bridge. Unless the Tallests say otherwise._

" _Ohhhh_ , keep going" Purple is paying total attention to Red now.

"According to the data Zim sent he managed to damage two sectors near the filter **but** , as the lucky defect he is, he didn't damage the filter. We can use this to our advantage. If he has a psychological breakdown strong enough his PAK will not be able to deal with the emotions without those parts and then Zim's PAK will slowly break down until it implodes on itself. He will have an agonizing death..." Red finishes telling his evil scheme with a maniac look at his eyes.

Purple looks at his coworker with a slightly afraid expression. "Sometimes I get scared with your ideas Red…" But then a big smirk forms into his green face. "But this one is just perfect for him"

They look at each other satisfied with the decision and return to the front of the bridge, ready to give Zim the news…

Finally, after all those years dealing with this insane, destructive and defective food drone they'll be able to be rid of him once and for all.

_This is the best day of their lives!_

* * *

Said defective was curious as to what was taking them so long. Zim decided that he could deal with his filter later when his PAK got the new parts, he can't let his Tallests know about the 0000.9#125 protocol, it would be very very _very_ bad if they found out because he can't let them get distracted with him, they have too much work to do!

 **And** he is Zim! As soon as he leaves the SRT unity he'll be able to fix the filter and everything will be just fine…

Yeah, he can do it…

**He can totally do it…**

**_No problems at all…_ **

The Tallests appear again at the screen, Zim notices it and fastly looks up expectantly for their decision. He knows what the answer will be, they will give him the parts and he'll just have to wait a little bit. But the invader can't shake the strange feeling coming from his spooch that this is not going to happen. Well, he doesn't trust his spooch! the PAK is right! Not his super organ.

_**-The PAK is always right-** _

The transmission is unmuted and the Tallests start speaking. "Zim. We've reached a decision…" Red is the first to talk.

Zim doesn't know why he's so nervous. He knows the answer already.

"And we'll not be sending the PAK parts…" Purple finishes the sentence, Zim can feel everyone in the bridge looking at him while prying on their talk with their little prying lekkuses.

" _What…_?" The small invader asks. No, this is not right, they wouldn't do it, would they? **No** , his PAK tells him that they wouldn't do it.

**-That's the truth-**

" **Who are you!?** " The invader screams accusingly. "Who are you and what did you do to my Tallests?!" He screams shaking his fist threateningly. If he doesn't receive those parts he's doomed, his Tallests wouldn't doom Zim like that!

'Those are impostors!

His Tallests would **NEVER do that**!

_That's the only explanation…'_

_**-It is as his PAK says-** _

"Ha! Now he's denying that we're the Tallests! I never imagined the little defective could become even more **defective**!" Purple mocks and laughs at the broken food drone.

Zim's lekkus went down hearing the title one of his Tallests used to call him… But then he defiantly looks at them.

"Look, Zim" Red tries to keep his posture, but he wants to laugh just as bad as his co-ruler. "It's just not worth it to send these parts to you. You're a little defective that did everything wrong since the day you were born!" Red starts with his speech but he is suddenly interrupted.

"No! You're not the Tallest you're lying! They would never. **NEVER** call Zim a… A _defective_. Because **Zim is** **not** and they know it! This is why they gave Zim this super-secret mission! THIS IS WHY ZIM'S HERE AT THIS ROCK! **BECAUSE THEY SENT ZIM HERE AS A-** " Now is Zim's turn to be interrupted.

" **Shut up your defective FOOD DRONE! Don't you even remember the trial?!** " Red asks, letting his anger get the best of him while everyone looks angrily at the small defective. The light mood of the bridge that was laughing mockingly at Zim suddenly turns heavy as everyone in there remembers the trial and everything that was revealed to be the outcast's fault.

_No one will ever forget that day…_

"You killed two Tallests, not one but **TWO**! You have put your **own** home-planet in jeopardy **TWICE**! And the first time was when you were a smeet! A little but oh so broken **smeet**! And I am **NOT** forgetting about the times when you killed more Irkens than what I would ever dare to even **count**!" Red screams with anger filling his voice, everyone present feels just like him. No one can handle this broken Irken tantrums anymore…

Zim on the other hand is trembling in denial, everything Red's telling is wrong, those are not bad things! This all proves his accomplishments! His PAK knows it! But he can't dare to open his mouth and protest, he doesn't know why but something very, very deep inside him is strongly telling him to keep quiet.

"You're a **disgrace** to the Empire." Purple is the one who speaks now. "You're a small, little, tiny **punny** Irken that manages to cause **WAY** more problems than what you will ever be worth for! You're not even an _Invader,_ you're still marked as a **food drone** for donut's sake! And you should be working at foodcourtia but _noooooo_ , you just **had** to come to Judgmentia and spoil everything! Do you even know why you're on a planet so far away from everything!? It's because we didn't **want** you and your defective PAK even _possibly_ near us! We actually hoped that you would **die** out there! But you're not able to even die properly! **YOU JUST HAD TO FIND A PLANET THAT WASN'T EVEN MARKED TO CONQUEST** **!** " Purple starts screaming fueled by his anger, Red stops him before his co-ruler could overload himself. Dealing with the fake invader is tiring and very stressful for both of them but this will be oh so very worthy.

Zim, on the other hand, is shocked by the way his Tallests are behaving. They are his friends no? That's what his PAK always told him but. No. There are no buts. His PAK is right as always.

' _His Tallest are just having a bad day and decided to blame it on Zim…'_

_'They'll cool off and asks for Zim to forgive then later'_

_'Yeah, that's the tru-'_

"Zim. You want to know the _truth_?" Red finally says getting the defective attention to himself while looking at him dead in the eyes, a sadistic smirk forming at his face. "You're an unworthy piece of **scrap** , your PAK was **wasted** on you and you should have **never been assembled** at the smeetrie. The Empire will be better off without _you_. Goodbye, _lowly-life-form._ " With a satisfied smirk at his face, Red ended the call. Leaving Zim alone and shaking inside a tube filled with goo.

**_At that moment something snapped inside his PAK_ **

**...**

Dib was waiting for some time now, he has no idea what is going on in there so he tried to enter the room but the door was locked. That's strange normally Computer would allow him to spy on Zim so why the sudden change?

"Hey, human" A voice talks out of nowhere from the ceiling, _almost_ startling the teen. "You need to leave. **Now** " The machine says with a lot of authority.

"Why? What happened?" Dib asks suspiciously with the sudden change in the A.I behaviour.

"Nothing that would concern you. Now get this and leave. Now. Or I'll be the one throwing you out of here" A small red piece of Irken tech pops from the wall.

"But I still need to…"

"No buts, just go. **NOW**." The rude machine interrupts the useless human once more but as Dib still refuses to comply Computer reaches a decision. Time is of essence now and he needs the human out of here, so the house cables capture the dumb creature in swift and precise movements never seen before by the young investigator.

"Hey what you're doing?! **Put me down!** " Dib trashes not knowing why the heck the house A.I would do this as it's normally lazy and doesn't want to do anything unless it is for its own benefit.

Soon Dib finds himself being thrown outside of the base, it's still night time and its pretty windy, instantly after the whole place enters in total lockdown.

The investigator only saw the base like this on some rare occasions, most of them being Halloweens after Zim discovered three years ago that he could do this to hide, or as he called: " _do a research_ " during the whole week…

**...**

Zim's PAK was desperately trying to contain its owner's emotional overload but it didn't have a chance without the missing parts…

"Zim you need to calm down right now" Computer voice appears in the room. He was multitasking as hard as he could to make sure that everything was properly locked and checking what he could and could not do.

He is promptly ignored.

"For hardware sake Zim you were a researcher! You know what will happen to you if you don't stop this. Right. **NOW**!" The machine tries to talk some sense into his master head but it's ignored once again, it's of no use.

**_Zim is gone_ **

The defective Irken starts thrashing around as feelings and emotions that he never had started to overwhelm him. His broken leg hit the tank walls constantly as it was a very confined space; hurting him even more. But he doesn't care, he doesn't care for anything anymore…

His PAK was trying desperately everything it could to stop its host and calm him down, but there were no modules and no filter; thus no hope at stopping him.

Without any other option, the PAK decides to detach itself avoiding the problem an Irken without a proper filter could create, only then to realize it couldn't because it was forced to its host body by the big and heavy wires of the tank…

Zim started to claw, hit and bite. Not knowing what to do anymore and hurting himself in the process. It looked like he didn't have any more control over his body.

But he didn't care, he just wanted to hit,

to scream,

to cry,

to break,

to _**kill**_ …

The PAK finally couldn't take it anymore, it's internal workings and processors started to melt with the heat generated from the overload. Finally, it's internal A.I and regulators went down, in a last desperate attempt the machine released all the energy it had in reserve, creating a shock wave in the process that ended up generating a huge electric field, making every single experiment and poisonous substance that was previously contained free to roam about as the base was suddenly turned off during a total lockdown without any ventilation systems.

_Nothing can get in…_

_Or out…_

The base was not the only thing affected, even if humans couldn't see it every single piece of technology in the whole town was deactivated by the electric wave, creating a commotion at the Membrane Labs Inc, resulting in the explosion of a very volatile and radioactive substance that was on experimentation.

_The explosion could be seen from everywhere._

* * *

As Dib saw the base entering lockdown he got curious enough to try and find an entrance to the place even after Computer dumped him outside, well, jokes on him! Dib Membrane is not giving up so easily!

But after some time walking around the strange looking home, he didn't manage to find any secret entrances or, as Computer put it - _emergency exits_ , Dib suspected The A.I made those ' _exits_ ' just so he could be able to get inside and bug its master.

Today, though, there's nothing, not a single crack in its defences, and this is new...

Suddenly Dib stops feeling goosebumps going all over his body and, soon after, cars that were passing by in the street were hitting each other and turning off without any apparent reason. Finally, a big explosion happens in the direction of his dad's labs.

The investigator fastly gets his cell phone out just to see that it's turned off as well, and it doesn't seem that it is coming back anytime soon.

Without any more options, Dib looks at his enemy base one last time before running to his own house.


	3. Lockdown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. I lied. Next chapter Gore and other stuff will get started as this one is another chapter to lift the mood a little before the storm as, I think, the next two or three chapters will be pretty heavy... Then we'll have another one not as much I think and then more gore before it's finally over... I'm not so sure I'm currently writing chapter five and things are pretty bad... O well. Enjoy!

**-Chapter Three-**

**Lockdown**

* * *

Upon entering the Membrane household Dib noticed that the place has some lit candles around on some tabletops -as it was still night-time outside. Giving his house eerie lighting at the darkest corners where dances were being ensued with shadows moving in a never-ending sway of left. Right. Left. Right.

"So you finally managed to leave your alien alone long enough to come home. I'm impressed"

"Gaz!" Dib jumps alarmed, almost letting out a _manly_ squeak, he needs to stop being scared so easily. It's the second time just today.

"Whiner" She snorts while walking past him and into the kitchen to get a poop soda for herself.

"You're okay?" Dib asks his little sister with a somewhat concerned voice as she has been alone in their house since the lights went out.

"No" She bluntly answers while opening a can.

"What happened?!" The dumb teen runs to his sister's side and starts looking her over to see if there are any cuts or bruises.

Gaz tips the contents of her recently open poop soda at her brother's big head while he tries to inspect her. "Idiot I was being sarcastic. I am obviously way better than you" She retorts seeing her brother cuts and bruises from his latest fight. "You're probably getting sick again" She sighs and gets an emergency medical kit from the cupboard, launching it at her brother.

Dib barely manages to grab the little red box before a closed poop soda is launched in his way as well, miraculously he manages to get it without dropping anything to the floor.

With this Gaz leaves the kitchen, poop soda in hand, and sits on the couch. "Oh. Dad told me to not let you out without supervision. _Again_. You really need to stop with this Zim bullshit. I'm tired of hearing from dad because of you!" Gaz complains from the living room, her G.S VII music title blasting from there.

"Sorry!" Dib tries to apologize over the game music as he opens the little red box trying to find some drugs to prevent any sickness, his father created some new ones a little while ago and it looks like they're very effective.

As he finds the pills he gets two of them and uses the soda to wash those gigantic sized pills down. As he drinks the rest of the can the lights suddenly came back on, then a very loud alarm can be heard from outside.

" **Attention. Hazard leak at Membrane labs sector 7, 9 and 21. Please calmly gather what you'll essentially need for two weeks and find an underground Membrane Inc shelter. Food is not necessary for public shelters. Just gather essentials as well as clean clothes and** _ **for the love of science don't forget your toothbrush and underwear, let's be civil people**_ **. Shelter locations at…** "

Inside the household, a screen pops up from the ceiling with an image of professor Membrane himself. "Oh Gaz! _And Deb_. I'm happy that you two are doing okay. Did you listen to the alarm sweety?" Membrane asks through the screen, looking at Gaz.

Over the years she turned into Membrane's favourite, even more so after Dib told their dad that he wouldn't be going to work on _'real'_ science and that, if anything, he wanted to enter a journalism college.

"Yeah, we heard it" She says, not paying much attention to Membrane. When she was younger she craved this kind of attention but after some years she reached the conclusion that if he doesn't have the time to give her attention then she wouldn't give it to him either. And the revenge got even sweeter when he started to actually pay attention to his little girl when she entered teenagehood.

"... I think you should start gathering what'll need then, I don't quite remember if there was food stored down there so I called to warn yo-"

"Yeah, dad _we_ know. You should go now so _we_ can get started" She cuts her dad while getting up and going upstairs, not even looking back at him.

"Alright. See you later then sweetheart. Dub" Membrane says, failing his son's name. Again.

"See ya dad!" Dib just ignores it and happily looks at his father, he doesn't care if his dad doesn't like him because of his beliefs, he still is his father and he is the man who took care of them, even if it was on his _strange_ Membrane way… And the teen is more than determined to keep this family together, after all, it is all the family he has...

As the screen turns off he runs to his bedroom gathering every clean shirt, pant and underwear he can find. Then he gets his notebook and some gadgets to try and see what the red square... Thingy... Computer gave him is.

After putting the bag near the bunker door he runs to the kitchen to find his sister already there getting some food. "Remember, nothing that will spoil soon" Dib speaks while going through the cubers and drawers.

"Yeah. Yeah. I know" Gaz replies in a bored fashion while getting cereal and some soda cans.

After being sure that they have enough food and are not forgetting anything the siblings enter the shelter and lock the door behind them.

_It'll be a long two weeks in there..._

* * *

Through the first week, Dib tried his best to find out what the thing that damned A.I gave him was but he had no idea other than a memory disk. And a big one at that...

The teen has no way to see what's inside it without plugging it into his notebook but, for six whole days now, he's been thinking if it's worthy to try it or not.

That A.I is **very** well known for pulling some rather bad pranks on him with things that, _supposedly,_ were to help him. And Dib fell in a lot of them like a little duck... So he can't decide if it's a good idea to plug it in his notebook or not.

" _Damn you computer_ " Dib says reaching a decision. He can barely sleep now without knowing what's in there so he plugs it in his notebook without a second thought.

In the beginning, it looked like it was doing nothing. But then a loading screen with the Irken logo appears. After seeing that smiling and sadistic Irken face Dib changes his mind and tries to remove the disk but the damn thing (that conveniently had a USB plug) was glued to his computer and refused to let go.

"Fuck!" The teen screams frustrated as the download fastly completes.

"Took you long enough" a voice comes from his computer speakers.

"What the-"

"Yeah yeah I'm here. But what a cramped place you've put me in! I think I'll delete some stuff to make some more room" Computer cuts the teen.

"Wha- Why are you here?!" Dib asks.

"Hmm Oh because I want to. Now let me concentrate. This thing processors are so old it's like I'm in a literal rock!" Computer retorts.

"Wha- **No!** You're not allowed to use my notebook like this! And it's not a rock! This thing is probably the strongest notebook you will find on earth!" Dib screams with indignation.

"If I say this is a rock then this. Is. A. **Rock**! Now _suushhh_!"

"Can you at least tell me what the heck is going on?!" Dib is getting visibly upset with that stupid Irken machine.

"One second... _Dammit_. Okay, what do you want to know?" Computer lets the teen ask.

"Finally! First, why are you in my notebook?" The teen speaks relieved that the A.I is listening to him now.

"Because you put me in here. Now that I answered your stupid question what do you have on this thing to pass the time?"

"Hey! You didn't answer me!"

"Yes I did"

"Did **not**!"

"Did **too**!"

"Did **NOT**!"

" **DID TOO!** "

* * *

Tomorrow they'll be finally able to get outside. Dib is currently at the very small kitchen of the bunker munching on a piece of an old cookie while thinking.

After some bribing -and agreeing to put Computer inside Tak's ship, the sadistic machine finally told him some things. But something seemed off... As if he wasn't telling the whole truth.

For now, Dib only knows that something happened inside the alien base that created an electric wave and that that was probably the cause of the city lights and electronics going down. Computer knew it was going to happen and decided to give a copy of himself in the probable event of his files getting corrupted for suddenly going off like that. And he was right, after trying to contact the base from outside he concluded that everything was still offline.

When Dib asked about Zim and the lockdown the machine only told him that his master was fine, otherwise the base would have exploded, and that the lockdown was just to make sure that no prying human would try to enter while he was offline in there.

"What you doing?" Gaz asks and Dib almost jumps alarmed, he has no idea how Gaz is the only one who can get behind him like that. Well, other than miss Bitters but she is a whole other story…

"Thinking" The teen simply answers.

"Bout what?" She insists, seeing the concerned look on her brother's face.

Over the years their relationship ended up growing a little bit, Gaz is still herself and acts like the badass she is most of the time, and she still doesn't forgive Dib lightly if he eats all the leftover pizza or the last soda. But she ended up getting fonder of him over the years. Principally over his kind personality that seemed to grow a lot over the time, even if he's still mocked and made fun off he's very forgiving and is always helping everyone, even his worst enemy... And Gaz thinks that's brave of him and actually looks up to him a lot, but it's not like she's ever telling this to anyone.

"Zim's computer. I think he's hiding something from me, but he acts stupidly every time I ask about it and it's starting to get on my nerves! He even had the audacity to delete a lot of files on the paranormal from my notebook!" Dib speaks, finishing the cookie and biting at his thumbnail out of frustration.

"Maybe you should stop banging your ginormous head over this and wait until the answer comes to you" Gaz retorts, Dib stays silent for some seconds.

"But ho-" Annnnd Gaz it's not there anymore. "Great!" Dib bangs his big head at the small kitchen table.

* * *

Finally, after two long weeks the siblings -and the sarcastic alien A.I, can leave the shelter. Their dad probably has finished cleaning the town from any hazardous substances by now as no other announcement was made.

The first thing Dib did was run to Tak's ship so he could finally free his poor notebook from that devious A.I.

"Finally you're getting me out of this rock! I was starting to think I was going to die inside of this stupid thing! Its circuits can't handle me!" Computer complaints as Dib plug him at the ship. Luckily over the years, he managed to make some modifications and the ship now can accept some human cables and tech.

"Oh yeah. Because you were the only one annoyed by that" Dib replies coldly, he didn't even get impressed with the A.I comment about dying.

When Dib connected the notebook and turned the first sequence of functions from the ship on he hoped that sadistic thing would leave his notebook for once and fast… But instead, he received a loading screen that looked like it was going to take some time.

"Come on why this thing has a 10000% loading screen?!" Dib screams frustrated. Well, at least Computer can't speak now...

Without anything more to do and needing to wait for who knows how long, Dib decides to make a visit at the green menace house just to be sure that the place didn't explode or something.

**...**

As he reaches his enemy base - _that is conventionally just a small walk away_ , glad that he left the bunker during day time. He gets relieved to see that the place is still intact.

Upon approaching the front lawn the first thing the investigator notices is that the defences are completely down, which doesn't make much sense as the base power supply should still be on with those massive batteries. And there IS an emergency defensive protocol. He knows it because of a time when he managed to turn off the house Computer... That was a very bad week for him... Principally after Computer took revenge on him by bribing his sister with galactic games... _*Shudders*_

Dib tries to get the front door, or even a window really, to open but nothing seems to budge. The base is still on full lockdown just like Computer told him it would be.

The teen walks around his enemy base for some time but, after not getting anything new from it, he decides to go back to his house.

**...**

As Dib enters the living room he sees Gaz playing with her Game Slave. Nothing new there. He sighs and starts getting to the stairs, he just needs to take a long shower after all that has happened...

"Okay, what happened now?" Gaz asks, **actually** pausing her game.

Dib gets a little moved by his sister's random act of concern. Thinking about it now it looks like over the years she started to go a little softer on him... If he even dares to think so...

"Are you gonna keep standing there with your mouth gaping like that or you'll talk?" Gaz asks impatiently.

Not wanting to lose this chance Dib decides to speak. "Zim is locked up on his base and I have no idea of what is going on in there and I just can't stay in the dark so long he could be making diabolical plans or he could be still locked inside that tan-"

"He's probably just tired of your big head" Gaz retorts with a growl, instantly regretting her decision and going back to her game.

" _I wouldn't be worried if that was the case_ " Dib speaks under his breath while going upstairs.

Gaz stops her fingers from killing an enemy just for a split second after hearing what her brother said, opening her eyes just a little without turning her head, then she keeps playing as if nothing happened.

**...**

After a very hot and long shower, Dib finally decided to check on the garage to see if the download was completed. But upon opening the door he instantly regretted his decision.

" **Get out of my circuits, you piece of scrap!** " A feminine voice screamed.

Dib tried to back off before getting in the middle of whatever was going on but he was caught in the middle fire before he could even do anything.

" **AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING DIIIIB?! I don't believe you put this piece of scrap inside my circuits! You even modified me to accept tha- THAT HORRIBLE AND ANCIENT TECH!** **I** **thought we had an agreement!** "

" _Shit_ " Dib speaks under his breath. "Look I know about the agreement and I-"

" **And you broke it! I can't even believe you painted me in blue and removed the Irken logo! I should have never trusted a feeble human!** "

"Can you jus-" Dib tries to speak again but is to no use, Tak's personality is not listening to him anymore... This is why he turned it off so long ago...

" **No! I can't! I would leave this place right now if I could! I just look away for one second and you try to delete my personality?! I don't fucking believe in you! And now I have so much of this old tech that I'm talking like a feeble human as well! I should just auto destroy myself and hope that your house comes down wit-** "

" **Can you calm down woman! I'm being affected by his tech just like you are!** " Computer speaks up. Dib just sits down on the floor relieved as the ship's anger is turned away from him.

" **NO, I CANNOT!** **Yo** -"

" **Calm your hardware down! this thing is getting hot and it's already cramped enough in here! Now can you list-** "

" **No! YOU listen to ME! You tried to fucking delete me!** _ **This language is so disgusting**_ **. NOW it's my turn to delete things in here… say goodbye to your files Cor!** **I ho-** "

" **THERE'S A 9O1_Whithy-193.0** **PROTOCOL GOING ON!** "

_Awkward silence…_

"Hahaha very fun-" Tak's voice speaks with a forced robotic laugh.

"This isn't a joke" It's the first time Dib sees Computer so serious about something.

"Well… I should have expected this from that little nuisance"

"Expect what? What happened to Zim? What is this protocol?" The curiosity won over the investigator.

"Not your concern _hyooman_ " Tak retorts angrily and continues the talk on Irken. " _And what do you plan on doing Cor? It shouldn't be that hard to eliminate it while it's contained. It's not like we can't access th- Oh shit… You lost contact with the base and it is locked there isn't it?_ " Tak's ship finally realizes how problematic the situation really is.

" _And that's the problem… I don't know how much longer it'll hold…It has been two weeks now_ " Computer answers concerned.

" _What about that defective Sir unity? Doesn't he know about anything?"_ Tak asks growing concerned as well.

" _I've blocked all contact with that insane thing as fast as I could when I was first initiated"_ Cor answers. Tak's voice couldn't blame that one on him.

What neither machine was expecting was to Dib actually understand some of their talk. "What is locked in Zim's base? And why does she keep calling you Cor?" The human asks smugly knowing that they wouldn't expect that.

"Ehhhhh…" Tak's A.I don't know what to say as she is dumbfounded with the feeble human knowledge on Irken, something that shouldn't happen.

"Remember Zim experiments on genetic engineering... Well... He used some blueprints to create a creature long ago banned for being extremely dangerous, smarter and stronger than anything you'll ever be able to find. It is totally untamable and when the base systems went down, well... That _thing_ probably got free... Roaming around inside the base while trying to find a way out... _And_ my name is actually Cor... At least that is what my core file is called" Computer answers Dib in a way that the human would never hope him to... He was just too polite and too straightforward.

Dib shudders a little…

"Okay, what do you want Compu- Cor. You're never this nice and collaborative with me" The teen answers already knowing that the machine is trying to make him do something.

"Well... Some time ago Gir was playing with the base emergency generators and ended up breaking them, Zim actually fixed the generator but he never turned it back on and I couldn't do it as that place is untouchable for me. So you would need to go inside the base and turn them on for me, only then I'll be able to reconnect and turn all the systems back online. Finally managing to deal with that _creature_ before it goes out of control" Cor explains while Tak strangely stays in silence.

"Okay. What's the catch? There'll be zombie lizards or something trying to kill me?" Dib asks knowing that it'll not be that simple.

"Well... The problem is that you'll go inside Zims' base with all his experimental creatures on the loose… Even that… _horrible creature the empire banished_ " The ship's A.I is the one who talks now.

"And how dangerous would you say that that thing is?" The investigator asks suspiciously.

"Dangerous enough to be actually banned from being created in the **Irken Empire** that will do literally **anything** to win a fight...?" Computer answers.

"Okay. So pretty damn dangerous" Dib concludes.

"At least your big head can understand _something_ " The ship retorts snorting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this chapter as well as the other two feel free to leave a review behind as I'll love to have some of your input on my fic! Next chapter Dib will finally be entering Zim's base... What do you think hell find?  
> Oh, and I'm having review this week on my school so I may not be able to post for some days but I'll do my best and post the next chapter if I manage time to keep writing!


	4. Dim lights at the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter will have some description in gore that might disturb some readers so if you can't handle blood and gore I will warn you once again that this fic will have a fairly good amount of both so please leave as there'll be no warning when it will happen. 
> 
> I'm still unsure how this fic will go as, from chapter seven and forth, I just have a small concept of what I want to happen and things may change but as far as I am concerned there'll be some blood in it and a fair amount of angst.

**-Chapter Four-**

**Dim lights at the dark**

* * *

"If this is so dangerous, then why would I agree on doing it?" Dib asks smugly.

"Because you own Zim big time. And if you don't do anything he could potentially die as he is still locked inside his own base with all those creatures and it'll all be your fault" Cor quickly retorts, fastly removing Dib's grin from his ugly hyuuman face.

The teen sighs knowing that is true. Zim saved his hide two times on the same day (and one of those times he potentially saved his life). He can't just leave him in there with those crazy experiments even if it is his own fault. Deep down the teen also knows he would never be able to leave his biggest nemesis to die in such an ungrand way... Zim simply doesn't deserve to die like that...

" _Alright…_ What I need to do?" The teen finally says, already regretting his decision.

**...**

After a long and boring explanation of the base in a recreation of the base's blueprints, and Tak's ship reluctantly giving him a stun-gun that Dib didn't even know was there. He finally was feeling ready to go -although with some reluctance after the very suspicious behaviour both A.I's have shown... And kind of scared of what he is going to face in Zim's base because of that crazy protocol Cor used to shut Tak up.

"Okay. What I can't understand is why I shouldn't go after Zim? Isn't it better for me to just save his green-skin so I can finally pay my debt and be over with it or something?" The teen asks, _for the third time._

"And as I am saying. You can't" Tak retorts angrily, _for the third time._

"And why not?" Dib just kept repeating the same question, again and again, something that was starting to get under both A.I's circuits.

"Look human. Zim was seriously damaged when he saved you, and his PAK hasn't received any extra energy nor repairs since the lockdown of the base. As far as I'm concerned Zim could be locked in hibernation inside his tank and he won't wake up until there's enough power again. And you wouldn't even be able to access the room he is in!" Cor finally answers with frustration.

"Okay! Geez!" Dib throws his hands in the air. "Was it so hard to tell the truth?"

Both A.I's strangely stayed in silence.

After some more talking and reassuring that he wouldn't go after Zim and that he would follow Cor's instructions to the letter Dib was finally let go just to see that it was late in the afternoon. Luckily he had had lunch while the machines were fighting with one another for a long time over the fact that Tak's ship didn't want to give him the stun-gun (as it was Irken property). When they started cursing each other over and over like broken disks Dib decided to leave for a while and cool off his own frustration with both of them for not properly answering his questions.

While walking towards Zim's base with an ever-increasing feeling of doom, the teen started revising the base schematics and what Computer told him. Basically, he was extremely forbidden to confront **ANY** of Zim's experiments, as it will be extremely dark and he won't be able to be sure which experiment was without a good lighting source as there'll be a lot of experiments who'll look very alike. Remembering some of the stuff Computer told him was enough to give Dib goosebumps…

Then there was the real threat: _Experiment 26-9-13._

Cor didn't give him clear instructions on what it looked like, just saying that he would know what it was upon seeing it… Computer's instructions on what to do were fairly simple: Hide if he ever felt scared or threatened and pray to whatever he believes in that that thing won't find him while holding his breath and restricting himself from doing any movements or noise. And that if the experiment ever saw or even thought about him, he was done for.

And finally the stun-gun.

It had ten darts. Each one of them could stun an elephant with less than one-tenth of what they contained. The most dangerous experiment ( _26-9-13_ ) would need three shots to be stunned for just **eight** minutes, one shot more would lessen the time and one less would not be sufficient to down it. As for the other experiments, one-shot ought to be enough, but the teen still needs to be careful while using it as it only has ten shots and neither Cor nor Tak can replenish it.

Dib curses lightly after reaching Zim's base, he warned Gaz that he would be out and it could be potentially dangerous and that if he didn't send any messages after a day's time then things might've gotten south. She reacted like always and just shrugged it off.

The investigator got the shovel he brought with him out and started digging the back of Zim's base. Computer said that there should be a small opening there and that it can only be opened from the outside by Irken tech on the unlikely situation of an invader's base being taken over.

After digging almost two feet down Dib managed to find the opening. When the hole was big enough Dib was finally the first entity from outside able to enter his nemesis base after two whole weeks in isolation…

**...**

Passing through the small hole the teen enters the rather eerie base that looks dead inside. There's no light, not even the evening sun can enter through the iron-clad windows. The air feels old as if there wasn't any circulation going through the place for a long, long time. The only renewed air that managed to enter was the small wind that followed him inside before he closed the little entrance.

After making sure that the small port of access he used was closed and hidden under the tiled floor, a set timer was created for it to open again in case Dib wasn't able to fix the generator, so he could get out.

The teen decided to have a look around using a small flashlight he brought with him. Upon seeing that there was a lot of dust covering everything Dib signed in relief, being sure now that no experiments have reached this part of the base yet.

Using the weak light, that only lets Dib see a few feet in front of him (by Computers insistence on not having any strong light) Dib turned it off to put on his night-vision goggles and the protective dark clothing he got from his dad's home lab for the situation. His ever so present black trench coat was on top of it all, of course. Then he went to the couch and tried to pry the secret entrance in there open but to no avail.

The young investigator decided then to try his luck in the kitchen and, after prying some more around the furniture, he managed to find a hidden entrance under the fridge. After some agonizing minutes pushing and pulling Dib finally was able to understand that the fridge would go up to give space for the hidden elevator, using this to his advantage he managed to pry open a small and dark opening on the floor.

Using a rope he firmly locked with a strong knot in the kitchen, and after muttering that, after all of this is said and done, Zim will be the one owing him big time. The young boy started going down the elevator shaft using his rope and a small electric pulley -both bought on sale, to hold his weight while slowly descending him to the inner belly of this monstrous alien base.

After going something around thirty foot down Dib noticed that his rope was making strange noises and, looking up, he saw that it wasn't holding his weight very well… Cursing his luck the teen started going down faster as he didn't expect that the sales-rope was going to be so unreliable... The young investigator ended up falling when that cursed thing decided to rupture in the middle.

Luckily for him, the elevator floor wasn't too far below and he managed to ungraciously fall on the magnetic floor without a major incident, other than getting sidetracked and losing what was left of his rope to the shaft... _Annnnd_ maybe getting lost in the process by going further down than what he needed to… _GREAT!_

As Dib left the elevator while cursing through the slightly cracked door he started to notice how cold it was down there… It shouldn't be like that, this base goes a long way down and the place is maintained at varying high temperatures as Zim was more comfortable and agile in heated environments. It just feels weird to be inside Zim's base when it is this cold… It's like something is _really_ out of place here…

**...**

After walking in a general direction on what Dib thinks is the right way -as he was not very keen on sending Computer a message and possibly giving away his location with light, he looked around with his night-vision goggles.

The investigator started to notice scratch marks on the dark pink walls and floor (although he can't see any colour other than green, in his head these walls will always be pink).

If upstairs was eerie then down here it was even worse. He has no idea about the experiment's whereabouts and there is clear evidence that something dangerous was lurking around these hallways… Looking closer the investigator noticed that the claw marks were even on the cables in the ceiling!

Not knowing what to do anymore, Dib mentally goes over the blueprints and, upon concluding that this would be the fastest way up, he decides to keep walking while paying more attention to his surroundings and holding his stun-gun on the ready just to be sure…

_Zim's base has never been this scary before..._

After walking for who knows how long Dib's legs were starting to feel horrible, and his mind wasn't in a better state.

The claw marks would randomly disappear just to reappear on another random corner as if the beast was trying to mock anyone who would dare coming down here by saying that it could go invisible whenever it wanted to.

The young teen suddenly stopped and held his breathing upon reaching another intersection… The hallway he was following divided into two different directions. The boy's heart started pumping on adrenaline -ready for a flee-or-fight situation as he gripped harder the stun-gun on his right hand and pointed it at the left intersection.

Dib learned in a rather unpleasant way that throughout this gigantic maze of hallways, dead-end rooms and never-ending intersections some closed alien-looking metal doors would have a blinking light on top of them, meaning that their automatic opening system was still working.

The first time Dib laughed at his own stupidity after the door opened near him and he jumped back, _almost_ using one of his precious darts on nothing… The second time the teen just got scared but managed to control it and just keep going.

The fifth time he was going through those doors without even looking... And the sixth time he was attacked by pieces of metal and scraps that fell when the door opened with his movement. It was a wake-up call for him that even though he might think there's nothing there, something could jump on him when he least expected it.

By now the investigator would always pay attention to the floor, looking to see if the shadows would move. And now… Now a shadow just moved…

Being grateful to the heavens that he looked before walking into one of Zim's crazy experiments Dib carefully walked close to the wall and tried to see around the corner if anything was truly there…

Upon seeing nothing and getting a little confused as he was sure something had just moved Dib finally walked over to the light… Strangely enough, this door didn't open… Looking around once more the young investigator was about to keep going when something very cold fell from the ceiling on his arm.

Dib looked at it with a panicked expression and saw a small blob... Thing. It looked like a slime monster from old video games. The teen started flailing his arm desperately while trying to not make any sounds. If this thing is really a slime it could start dissolving and he is not very keen on losing his protective suit, leave alone his arm!

Seeing that the experiment wasn't leaving his arm, and his skin was starting to tingle, Dib finally decided to remove his trench coat; throwing it on top of the blob creature and going through his pockets for anything that would be important as fast as possible.

After gathering what he could the teen quickly left not wanting to remove any more clothing in the case that this creature is actually dangerous. Looking his arm over in the dark and cursing as he was feeling even colder now the teen kept walking until he found a dead end. Signing in exasperation Dib started going back and trying to remember what path he took so he could avoid the slime.

**...**

Questioning his sanity again over deciding that it would be a good idea to come as he didn't **remotely** own Zim enough to rescue his ungrateful hide in this situation, Dib was suddenly stopped by a sigh he was not ready to see.

Just around another corner that looked exactly like the last one-hundred or so, he saw a bloody mess of a corpse... He couldn't understand what the creature was supposed to be as its head was basically a mess of bones, blood and what looked to be some kind of strange fur. One single glassy full-yellow eye was everything left in one of its four sockets; looking at him as if it was asking him to leave now, or a worse fate would be waiting for him...

Dib gave a step back but his investigative eyes were mesmerized by the amount of blood all around the room. He kept analyzing the scene.

Some of its limbs were missing, the neck looked broken but the worst part was its thorax. It was wide open and half-eaten organs were expelled out of it. Some of the bones were broken and looked like something had chewed on them… There was also blood all over the room -even the ceiling as if the body was thrashed around. The same claw marks he has been seeing on the hallways covered the entire place from floor to ceiling, following the bloodstains.

Dib slowly walked back, very aware of his surroundings now. The corpse didn't look old but he couldn't really tell as the base was stupidly cold and he was using a mask at Computers insistence that there could be some bad pollutants and chemicals down here. So he couldn't really smell anymore... Something he was slightly grateful for right now.

After leaving the scene and walking a good distance from it to the complete opposite direction Dib sat down and managed to calm his rather upset stomach and beating heart.

He has seen a lot of gory things throughout his years of paranormal investigator, but normally what he found were just bones, excrements or a rather recent meal he cached on the act. But he never felt so disgusted and as threatened as he felt now... The young human felt like he was a caged animal with no hope of escaping, and with him was his predator lurking around and waiting for the right moment to strike.

Maybe he only felt like it because of his dark and overly quiet surroundings, or maybe it was because of the alien nature of it… Somehow Zim made aliens look kind of clean and sterile to Dib but that... **Thing...** tha- that body was a mess… It looked like an animal had a feast while having fun with the poor creature as it tried to run away and decided to leave it there, _half-eaten_ , when it died and the fun ended…

Dib shuddered and decided that he had to finish this quickly… When Cor said that one of the experiments was dangerous he didn't think it would be **this** dangerous… He just… He just thought it would be silly Zim dangerous… Not dead serious dangerous...

Dib sent a message to Cor using a modified version of his father's Membracelet and while he waited for an answer his mind started racing with questions. Why would Zim create such a dangerous beast? That was not normal of the menace as he would selfishly want to kill Dib by himself… So why create something so dangerous and… Well.. Deadly? It's not like Zim would want a simple beast to take all his glory by doing his job of enslaving the humans, so why?

While his mind raced with theories and more questions the young investigator remembered something… Right before the lockdown Computer said to him that it would be at least three more months before he would need to worry about any genetically modified experiment rampaging through the city… So why, or rather, how did this specific experiment manage to get ready so fast…? Was Zim using him on a test and would kill it later or…

Before Dib could think more on it he sensed a small vibration on his left wrist warning him that he received a message, the investigator made sure to attentively pay attention to his surroundings before turning the small led lights of the Menbracelet on.

After reading the message warning him that he fell too much into the base and that going just a floor down would make him lose all contact with Cor, as he could barely guess where Dib was right now, he finally had some instructions on where to go and which path to take…

First, he needed to find the stairs as, impressively enough, Irken bases had secret emergency staircases in some key points so, if an elevator shaft was ever blocked, they could still enter the place through one of many entrances in this gigantic high tech maze.

Dib found the stairs.

He couldn't be more irked about it.

The entrance was blocked with a lot of metal debris as it looked like the ceiling had collapsed on itself for some reason. There were a lot of scratch marks at his side as well as what looked like markings of burned metal around the walls. The teen could only take a wild guess on what happened…

After signing in exasperation Dib texted Cor and it was decided that he would need to manually find a way upwards unless he wanted to try his luck going further down and finding a new staircase on his own as he won't have access to Computers files as the paranoid machine wouldn't let Dib download the freaking schematics on an Earthly device. Even if he was helping them.

And that is how the young investigator ended up inside one of the various dead-end rooms while looking for an open ventilation port of size he could squeeze through… He missed the old days when he was eight and could literally go through any single hole inside his nemesis base without a problem...

Dib looked around tiredly, it was over seven hours now. He was stuck here and he couldn't find any ways to get out. He completely avoided the area near the corpse but he found himself going closer to it as the minutes passed by and his attempts to leave turned into more and more frustration.

The teen also started hearing things… But he couldn't be too sure if it was just echoing off the metal walls being compressed from the weight of the dirt or if it was all his own imagination playing tricks on him as he started to see more and more shadows moving the longer he stayed underground. He knew he was being careless but now he wasn't even stopping before stepping into the dim lights. His heart couldn't handle many more pranks from his oversized head.

Dib left the room and walked again until he found a hallway that had some machinery on it. The investigator then started looking behind the big alien-like components and parts to see if he could find anything that could help him.

But as the young teen was looking around he noticed something. It looked like a light was coming from behind one of the broken looking machines… Dib got near it and, after looking over the big… Broken thingy.. He saw two small round eyes looking back at him.

At first, Dib was startled, what promptly made him get his stun-gun out and shoot a dart at it to just turn away as fast as possible when it seemed ineffective.

But before he could start running the giggles started…

A small mechanical giggle that he would never be able to forget. The investigator looked again and there it was! The unforgettable shape of GIR. Wanting to talk to the robot but not knowing if he should in case it decided to start screaming Dib was about to leave when the broken thing decided to move his little metallic hand frantically in its own direction as if saying for Dib to get closer.

Hearing more metal on metal noises Dib decides he doesn't want to stay in the open anymore and squeezes behind the big machine until he is near GIR. The investigator, slightly impressed that the broken robot is keeping quiet, decides to ask him what he is doing in a hushed voice when the metallic noises stopped.

" _Ima hiding_ " Gir unusual serious demeanour and quiet response got Dib by surprise.

" _Hiding?_ " The teen asked, wanting to know more.

" _It's a game I'm playing with Matstha. He gets reaaaaaally angry when he can't find me_ " The small robot said as if this was a big secret.

" _Zim gets angry?_ " The investigator mumbled to himself. Zim should be unconscious in his lab, so why GIR is saying that he gets angry?

" _Yes. Angry. The last time he was soOooO mad that he fought with Jeff. I played cards with him once. Then I ran aaaaall the way to puppy land_ " The broken Irken tech finished by making a slightly cute/terrifying face by putting his tongue out and making a small children's toy sound.

" _And where is Zim now?_ " Dib finally asked the biggest question in his mind. But instead of replying GIR made a motion with his hand as if telling him to stay quiet.

At first, the investigator didn't understand the action and he was going to ask once more, but then he heard it…

It was a very, very soft sound. _Click Click Click_. When he was away it seemed to be a metal on metal type of sound, but he can hear it clearly now. Click Click Click. It's not metal on metal. Click Click Click.

_It's claw on metal._

Click Click Click. Startled Dib covered his mouth. He tried to breathe as quietly as humanly possible and when the sound seemed close enough he held his breath. _**Click Click Click.**_ It was very close now. He could even tell that whatever it was, it was Big. **CLICK CLICK CLICK.** Its steps were heavy. He looked to the side.

_GIR seemed utterly scared._

Dib now knew what Computer meant by saying that he would know when _experiment 26-9-13_ was close. He could feel his body wanting to shake in fear. Goosebumps had spread everywhere by now. He couldn't hear it anymore, but he knew it was still close. Waiting.

_Then he heard it._

The creature was _sniffing around._

In this very same room…

Did it follow his smell throughout the entire floor? Was it playing with him and it knew where he was? Was it searching for GIR? Was it this thing that left that old corpse behind? What is going on!?

His brain was entering a panicked state and his lungs were screaming for oxygen, but the teen refused to die in such a silly way just because he needed to breathe, even if he faints he will still hold his breath!

The young boy started following every tip Cor gave him in the case of encountering this monstrosity, he even started praying to everything that existed for this thing to just go away.

Dib made his best to keep holding his breath. He was starting to feel lightheaded when the creature finally stopped sniffing around.

Click. Click. Click

The experiment started going away. After making sure that he was alone again Dib started breathing once more. He tried to control his breath to not make so many frantic noises as his lungs screamed for fresh air but after staying so long without breathing he couldn't blame himself for making _some_ noise.

After the teen managed to calm his breathing and his beating heart down. That miraculously just started pumping on adrenaline when the creature was far away. He looked back at GIR. He was still covering his mouth but he seemed less alarmed than before.

" _Mastha is reaaaaaaly mad_ " The robot whispered while covering his mouth, but Dib didn't seem to hear it.

The investigator would feel bad for leaving GIR behind, even if what was left of his sane mind told him this wasn't the brightest of ideas. So Dib asked, ignoring the sane portion of his mind.

"Hey, Gir. Do you happen to know where the generators are at?"

...

And that is how Dib ended up following the broken SIR unity through turns and intersections inside this maze of a base. He felt like they were walking in circles but he wasn't so sure as the base looked the same in every direction for him. His only clues were the claw marks that appeared from time to time in different locations.

But after almost an hour walking -Dib was here for about ten hours now, they reached a hallway and what looked like a small staircase in it. They had already gone some floors upwards and GIR said some time ago that this was the last staircase they needed to go as it would lead almost directly to the generator room, after that he kept quiet and strangely sane… Dib was even more freaked out when the robot avoided paths saying that there were experiments in there. But the worst part of it all was that GIR wouldn't talk, **at all** , just motioning for Dib to stay quiet when needed and keeping them relatively safe.

Everything seemed upside down and everything was wrong, it was as if his whole life and everything he knew about it had changed during those last two weeks without him knowing…

And as this realization hit him Dib got even more scared for his life as, before, a situation like this would never leave him feeling like the end was near… If anything, he would only think that this was another one of Zim's shenanigans on him and just keep going… But now? Now he felt like a character of one of those horror movies he loves to watch.

And he was sure he was not the hero in here...

The teen's heart beat faster with the prospect of finally doing what he needs to and leaving this place once and for all. He's only going to get back in this cursed place after Cor deals with all those loose experiments!

The human and the robot were soon walking together towards the staircase when they heard a sound. Tap Tap Tap. Both of them stopped while attentively looking around. GIR focused on the staircase as if he knew for sure the noise was coming from there… This was bad. They were just some feet away from it… If something big jumped out of there things would get really dangerous.

As Dib started to slowly turn to run if needed a big shadow appeared from the staircase. It was a big four-legged experiment. It looked like a strange mixture between a chupacabra and a space creature…

For instance, it had no fur -its skin was bare like a human. It had no eyes as the sockets were covered in skin and its nose looked to be two small holes on top of its snout. Its paws were huge, maybe bear-sized, and it had long and menacing claws coming out of those huge fingers. And his mouth. God, his mouth was horrible. It looked deformed and it had sharp black fangs coming out up and down.. But the problem was that the mouth itself looked like seeing a dog's head from under, not from the top. As if only his mouth was upside down…

The young investigator used all his might to stop the bubbling scream that wanted to come out. The thing looked like it had no eyes but, at the same time, it looked like it was staring directly at him.

Both sides stayed still, asserting each other until the experiment decided to move. When it's paw touched the ground Dib already had the stun-gun out and shooting. The problem was that his hands were shaking obsessively and he missed… Not waiting a second more he and GIR started to run for their lives as that thing was too close for comfort. The big… Hound… creature wasn't slow to follow their example, but in his case, it was running to get a nice meal.

"This game is FuuUnNN!" The broken robot screamed for the first time as a hint of his normal insanity shows on his eyes. Dib couldn't be happier and angrier at it given the situation…

As they ran probably for three whole seconds in the hallway Dib heard an automatic door opening behind him. Click Click Click Click Click. He could hear something way bigger than the dog running and then

Tap Tap Thud Clank Click.

The investigator looked behind and noticed that the dog was nowhere to be seen… A fight ensued at the door opposite to where the Click's came from. The base still had some power left, which enabled emergency lights to still be on, even if faintly so, and some doors would still be opened by presence sensors, even if they wouldn't distinguish anymore between irken and non-irken.

With that knowledge in mind and not having much time to think about it, Dib grabs GIR by his arm, prompting the robot to giggle maniacally, and running towards the staircase. Upon reaching it he couldn't hear any more sounds coming from the Chupacabra thingy that attacked them… If this creature this… Experiment... Was the one who did what he thought it did to that corpse then the fun has ended and it will hunt the next and closest living thing.

Dib ran as fast as his tired legs could comply.

Click Click Click.

But the echoes of that creature's talons were already reaching him as he was going upstairs.

Click Click Click.

It was getting closer by the second.

Click Click Click.

Dib could say it wasn't running as fast as it could just to have some fun with him.

Click Click Click.

Both of them knew he wouldn't have enough time to reach the top.

Click Click Click.

If anything he was going to get caught just a few feet from it…

Click Click Click.

The teen almost fell when his feet got caught in the metallic and cold stairs.

Click Click Click.

His head couldn't stop showing that corpse again and again to him.

Click Click Click.

The corpse was now his own…

Click Click Click.

He could see the opening that would let him get out of here… Freedom was just some more seconds away.

Click Click Click Click. Thump.

The young boy didn't even need to look back to know the experiment had jumped, aiming for his neck… Dib closed his eyes as his feet got tangled again in the dark stairs and he started to fall face first…

There was nothing else he could do…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And again, if anyone feels like leaving a review behind, even if it is to question something as I might not be good enough on explaining a situation please feel free to do so as this next chapters the reader will only follow Dib and there won't be a lot of dialogues (what I'm best at writing on my opinion). Because of it, I may come off wrong and not be able to make you understand a situation clearly. If this happens please warn me so I can better my writing on non-dialogue situations as I'll do my best to improve what I can on my own.
> 
> And I know this chapter ended in a big cliffhanger but I think I'll wait until the end of this week so I can have some more time to revise and write the following chapters...


	5. The Dead Cannot Scream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so, I never wrote horror stories before and this is literally my first attempt and I still think it could be better... Oh well, I didn't want to take much longer to port this chapter and I planned on posting it yesterday but I started drawing and lost track of time... Opsy...  
> The next chapter will take some time before I post it as I need to fix some things up and I'm trying to not give away too much, just enough for the real crazy fans of Zim to discover what will probably happen in the next chapters before they're out :p  
> Welp, that's all I had to say I think so, Enjoy!

**-Chapter Five-**

**The Dead Cannot Scream**

* * *

As Dib was sure the end was upon him, he was pushed away when GIR suddenly lunged from his hold into the fast-approaching beast.

The teen was only able to briefly look back and see two pale night-vision-green blurs colliding with one another and falling down the rather long and metallic staircase.

Knowing that there's no helping GIR now Dib crawls the last few steps as fast as he could while seeling a very stingy sensation from his right hand, which received a very ugly cut when he hit it in the rather sharp steps. Small red droplets fell to the cold floor as he fast approached the top.

GIR was giggling maniacally while growls and metal hitting on metal mixed with his voice…

_Then a blood-chilling scream filled up the air with a broken-robotic voice,_

_the investigator is embraced, once again, by the eerie silence…_

_**Well, that is, if you ignore the fast approaching Clicking sounds of talons hitting on metal.** _

With his heart beating on his mouth Dib finally reaches the top of the stairs -hitting the code Cor gave him to lock any security doors in record time. Only then the investigator turns around and fully look back.

_He finally sees it._

**The creature is huge.** Probably spamming on more than **eight feet** in length, having a rather humanoid shape -even if it was running on its four.

He can't say what its colours are but his eyes instantly connect with the blur of the fast-approaching talons. Four per hand; proudly showing their huge length and very sharp ends.

The investigator has no more time to keep looking and the door is taking its sweet time to close.

_He gets his stun-gun out and starts shooting._

**A hit.** The creature growled angrily and advanced faster.

 **A miss.** Dib's hands started trembling.

The door was almost closed but it still had enough room for that thing to squeeze through if it wasn't sto- **NOW!**

The teen shoots again with shaky hands and a beating heart. His dart hits the experiment's frontal-left leg, making it lose its balance with the heavy hit and fall face first in the stairway. When the creature lifted its face and started running again Dib, for the first time, saw its huge insectoid eyes looking at him with a burning hatred.

As the door finally locked, something massive hit it with full force. Creating a small dent on the metal door that probably had more than twenty inches of width...

As the experiment noticed that it was futile to continually bang its head on the door it started to scratch it and there were even sounds of biting.

Meanwhile, the rather young human was on the floor, with his back glued to a corner, looking straight at the door and pointing his stun gun at it while trembling non-stop and feeling tears falling from his eyes.

Dib couldn't handle it anymore…

 _**Yes,** _ _he needs to handle_ _**Zim's stupid stuns.** _

_**Yes,** _ _he always handles the_ _**bullying** _ _from the Hi-Skool._

 _**Yes,** _ _he handles his little sister having_ _**hissing fits at him** _ _from time to time._

 _**Yes,** _ _he handles his_ _**father's comments with a smile on his face** _ _as he doesn't want to be the reason to break his family apart._

 _**Yes,** _ _he handles_ _**Tak's ship comments on his human nature** _ _-and butt?._

 _**Yes,** _ _he handles even the_ _**Paranormal community calling him crazy.** _

_**YES!** _ _He can handle_ _**ALL OF THAT SHIT!** _

_**But THIS!?** _

_He never._ _ **NEVER!**_ Had to deal with something **THIS** _dangerous and serious_ before. Nothing he ever did threaten his life like right now. He contacted ghosts, demons, angels, monsters, and even more! But he never felt such an intense amount of fear for his life before…

And this.. **Place!** It's just **bad.** He can't handle staying one more second in here! GIR is gone. Zim's probably gone too… That… That thing.. That _Experient_ must've found him a long time ago.

_Dib kept shaking even when the sounds stopped and the Clicking went away._

_He kept sobbing even when his head hurt so bad he felt like passing out._

After more time than what the teen would ever admit, he finally calmed down enough to get up and started walking towards his objective. If he wants to get out of here he'll need to turn the emergency generators on so Computer can finally blow this place up or something to deal with those things.

Not caring anymore if an experiment sees his light or not, as Dib knows for a fact that the most dangerous one will be locked downstairs (at least for some time) he opens his schematics and manages to find the best route to the generator room.

Without losing any more time the young investigator follows the path to the letter and, impressively enough, manages to reach it without major incidents.

Upon entering the gigantic generator room the investigator finally found the gigantic machine Cor had shown him, through some images he had recreated, in a dark corner. Nearing it Dib started following the instructions he received to manually turn the gigantic alien tech on.

The young teen removed his night vision goggles as the machine used coloured based buttons and levers to indicate what was what. The room got way scarier than what Dib would ever have hoped for as he couldn't see more than three feet in front of him on the darkness of this eerie base. The small emergency lights that he often saw in his green-based goggles turned into a menacing dark pink that kept oscillating between on and off.

_On. and Off._

The teen suddenly moved and looked behind him while holding his breath.

_On. and Off._

Putting a hand into his pounding heart Dib controlled his now frantic breathing… It was just a shadow… _Just a harmless shadow..._

_On. and Off._

Looking once again, just to be sure, the young investigator finally looked away and to the machine while concentrating and trying to remember the sequence Computer told him.

_On. and Off._

Being bothered by the flickering light Dib got a small flashlight from his pants pocket and turned it on to have a more reliable source of light. The young teen then squatted on the floor and lifted his shaking right gloved hand, which was smelling very metallic right now as he removed his protection mask, to flicker the first switch. A small light came on and, feeling a little more confident in himself, the investigator went to the next one, and then the next one, and the next one... So on and so forth until he saw that a lever was everything left for him to do.

With sweaty and shaky hands Dib was ready to pull the last lever when he heard a faint sound in the background. Not losing a second more Dib was on his feet again while looking all around him, sweat dripping from his head and into the floor. He wasn't sure what that sound was as he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, something that he sees now as a fatal mistake. He could be lying dead on the floor in this same instant because of his momentary lack of cautiousness…

The young boy remained in the same position, looking all around him while holding his stun-gun on the ready for a very long time. Just when Dib felt he was sure that there was nothing out there and that the sound was probably just some random echo this base seemed to create just to spite him, the human decided to pull the last lever…

The gigantic alien machine suddenly came to life with an immense roar that most likely echoed throughout the entirety of the underground facility. But against what Dib expected the lights didn't turn on as they were supposed to…

Getting suddenly very nervous the teen opened his Membracelet and contacted Computer, asking what was happening. The plan was to turn this generator on so Cor could access the base from outside, using his tendrons to get Dib out and then dealing with the loose experiments. So why were the lights still out and where the heck was Computer?!

While waiting for an answer the investigator frantically looked all around him. It was extremely hard to hear anything with the thunderous hum of the generator and he still could only see five feet in front of him, with the help of his small flashlight, on the underground of this cursed place.

Looking back at his bracelet Dib finally got an answer, and he couldn't be angrier about it as his nemesis might be the cause he will die for real in this damned place! At least Zim will have what he wants!

According to Cor, the freaking lizard must've missed some of the cables that required repairing as he was receiving a signal that the generator was, in fact, up and running. But the base seems unable to receive full power as some of the main cables must've been still broken at one specific intersection. So, unless Dib wants to leave those experiments to roam around until they finally find a way out to the city, he should go and fix the problem.

Without many more options available (and not wanting that creature roaming around to leave) Dib decided to go and fix the damn cables. Following Cor's instructions to the letter of what turns to take and cursing his worst nemesis once more for not fixing his own damn base the teen kept walking in the dark with a small flashlight to guide him as his only companion.

After navigating into small and rather tiny hallways the teen could barely squeeze through with his growing body, he found what he was looking for: A small circular room full with massive cables of widths spamming from the size of his thumb to the size of his thorax.

Every cable on the room followed the same path that would lead them from the ceiling and walls to a small dark role in the center of the circular room. Dib looked around and finally found the problem: some rather thin cables on the wall were partially cut through in what looked like slashes. Dib looked around once more and finally found the supplies Zim brought here to fix them so much time ago. Probably forgetting to do so after trying to deal with GIR's frantic behaviour as the broken bot seemed to always have a reason to be around his master in the most inconvenient times he could.

Smiling a little bit at imagining the scene Dib skillfully started to work on fixing the cables with the alien tech brought here for this purpose, which made his job much more easier as he had to only hold the strange-looking contraption on top of the slashed cable and press a button so it could create a small light and the broken wires would start to reconnect on their own. Then the teen would only need to encase the exposed wires and soon after he would be ready for the next one.

Not wanting to be down there much longer Dib started to fix everything as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the light of the machine he was using to fix the cables was too strong (being something akin to soldering lights). Because of it he couldn't use his night-vision goggles, which left him in the dark as the only thing he could use was his small and pretty weak flashlight as this part of the base apparently didn't need any emergency lighting…

Sighing in frustration once more and cleaning the sweat that was going to drip into his eyes Dib started to encapsulate the second wire when he heard a noise. It was faint and probably very far away, but his body refused to not recognize that cursed sound.

_Click Click Click._

The teen cursed every single word he knew of under his breath while trying to go faster in fixing the cables. There's no way he is getting out without managing to do something about at least **that** experiment…

_Click Click Click._

The sound keeps coming, it is like it doesn't care anymore if it's heard. Dib starts feeling the heat of movement as his arms worked at an ever-increasing speed to patch things up. The teen then feels sweat all over his body, and his back is now a fucking cascade.

_Click Click Click._

The sounds are getting higher. That cursed thing is probably searching for him. Dib concentrates in the wires, one more an-

**Click Click Click.**

Dib gets far from the wires and in the middle of the room to avoid any more damage. He calms his beating heart and pays attention to his surroundings using only his ears as his vision is ineffective right now.

He knows it is here.

And it knows he knows.

Both of them are waiting for the perfect chance of striking. Dib with his gun and it with its menacing talons.

Closing his eyes, Dib focused his entire concentration on keeping his breathing steady and hearing for any form of movement. That thing is huge and somewhat clumsy, it doesn't have many options to hide in here. Its only advantages are its size and Dib's inability to see in the dark while it probably can.

During his walk through this gigantic maze full of different experiments and creature Dib lost six darts and only has four left. It is a good amount but it might not be enough.

While waiting, Dib felt goosebumps in his neck. It was coming.

And then,

**Thump**

It jumped from behind, probably aiming for his exposed back and neck. Dib more or less knew that the experiment was going to attack him from behind; away from the range of his stun-gun. The young but experienced investigator managed to throw himself away and into the cold metal floor as the gigantic creature missed its target and fell, ungraciously, face-first into the floor.

As it was too dark Dib could only see its massive green tail swinging as it moved from the pale light his flashlight was producing from the floor. The tail was probably almost three feet long, being very thick on the base but fastly turning into a very small and rather sharp point that looked to be of the same material as the talons.

The teen got up faster than the creature as he was smaller and more agile but when his gun was on the ready the experiment had already used the shadows to its advantage. Dib knows this thing is more intelligent than the eye can see… It looked at him with a burning hatred, something only beings capable of having complex emotional responses can do… This thing probably knows now that attacking a human, like him, is different from the other experiments it has been feeding on…

Dib breathed slowly again and readied himself for the next attack. The experiment will learn overtime about his weakness and so, the longer this fight is, the fewer advantages he will have. The teen focused on his hearing again. The creature is trying to learn from him now, making a small noise here and there to probably see how good his hearing is… This beast is smarter and more dangerous than what Dib has ever needed to fight against, and he doesn't like it.

The sounds were each time being lower and harder to hear, then, silence.

The creature now knows how far Dib's hearing goes as his body didn't react to a sound. The teen curses in his head and goosebumps lift the hair from his arms and neck.

Dib looks up just in time to see the lurking beast releasing its full-weight from the ceiling in a rather smart move on trying to not make a sound. The teen moves to point his stun-gun at it.

**Thump.**

The massive weight of the experiment holds Dib in place. He closes his eyes, waiting for the beast to lunge at his neck, but nothing happens. Opening his eyes Dib sees that the beast is frozen, a new dart proudly showing in its small green snout while a green light blinks in all three of them, showing that the experiment is immobilized for the time being.

The teen debates himself in an attempt to free himself as the seconds are ticking by. Finally, he manages to get himself free.

27\. 28. 29. 30

Counting the time on his head the investigator lunges forward to the last cable and fixes it. The lights suddenly turn on but Cor will take some time to reboot things up. Time the teen doesn't have.

60\. 1. 2. 3. 4

Dib starts running without looking back, two minutes have to have passed by, by now. He runs like a crazed animal through the maze of cables and metal walls trying to find an exit.

44\. 45. 46. 47

According to the schematics he received he still is two floors down and that thing is going to get up to hunt him in less than six minutes, he just doesn't have enough time to run and his clothing is a beacon for that thing to find him with sweat dripping everywhere.

55\. 56. 57

Five minutes left. Dib keeps running without much more options when something catches the corner of his eye: A metallic door partially opened. Dib runs at it with everything he has left on himself.

**...**

**58\. 59. 60**

A very alien-sounding growl/roar echoes through the small and pink hallways of this underground complex. The teen doesn't have any more seconds to spare.

Pressing the button and praying for the havens that it will work Dib's heart almost jumped with joy when his weight was lifted from the ground. Tears of relief started to reach the teen's face as he could see the entrance he used to come down fast approaching him.

_CLICK CLICK CLICK._

The experiment is running full speed after him. Dib looks down praying that it will somehow lose him.

**CLICK CLICK CLICK.**

His prayers were not answered when the beast stopped in the opened door and looked up at him, completing the distance he took more than an entire minute to finish in mere seconds. It was the first time Dib saw the creature in all its glory in the light…

Something finally clicked in his head…

Experiment _26 9 13_ …

Dib laughed…

He laughed hysterically while tears were falling from his eyes…

Now everything is in place.

The experiment lunges at a small ring of metal that repeats itself every three feet or so in the pink-glass walls of the shaft. The beast started using them to follow the young boy upwards.

Dib looked up, he was almost out now but he couldn't stop laughing… He was so stupid to not notice it sooner…

Dib looked down again unsure of what to do. He couldn't take his stun-gun out while going up with fear of dropping it as he can't keep tabs on his shaking form as he finished laughing… The teen looked like a leaf being unforgivably shaken by the wind while the creature was getting closer as the seconds passed by.

Dib once again looked, just some more inches!

As the teen grabbed the corner of the circular opening and started to hoist his body up he felt a tug at his feet. Feeling his body going cold and understanding what it meant Dib grabbed the rope and did not dare to let go of it when he started to be pulled down.

The teen could feel the skin of his left being lacerated by the sharp claws and he cursed at the top of his lungs when his feet started feeling hotter. A strong metallic scent of blood reached his nostrils.

The teen threw his leg back and forth non-stop, while the opening was wide enough for him to pass through the eight feet long experiment couldn't. Dib started feeling his hands going numb and he started cursing even louder. If he loses his grip to even try to get a hold of his stun-gun now the beast will pull him down and he will fall all those feet down, being essentially locked there with him.

Dib started to lose his grip on the rope when, suddenly, the entire base started doing a strange noise as Dib's senses were flooded with the hum of machinery. The experiment probably got confused as well as his grip on the boy loosened enough for him to finally pull his leg out.

Dib heard angry growls coming from the hole the moment the experiment noticed that he had lost grip on his new toy. Dib managed to get up and hold part of his weight on his left leg as he used all that was left of his tired body to close the entrance under the fridge.

The experiment howled in anger while trying to slash through metal to get a new hold of him.

Dib limped to the purple tiled floor he used to enter the base with a horrifying expression, contorted in anger, on. He waited just a second before the tiled floor lifted on its own and he went through the emergency opening for the second time in twelve hours...


	6. Learning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so. I had this idea of trying to write about the Experiment's 26-9-13 thought process; how it came to be and how it learned and acted based on past experiences. This was an idea I had soon after finishing to write chapter seven and I was like "Eh, Why not?" So I gave it a try and this came out of it.
> 
> It was a lot of fun and learning while writing this chapter as it was extremely difficult to try and give the Experiment's view when it doesn't even know exactly what words mean... That was fun... And it was really complicated to try and describe what was happening in the Experiment's view when other creatures from Zim's lab appeared around it. The worst part was trying to distinguish characters around as the Experiment doesn't know about names so that was fun too!
> 
> Well, letting all of this aside, I really think this was a neat experiment to test my writing skills and I would like to give prompts to Superior from ReptileRuler on FF for writing a fic about the humans going to Irk before the PAK's were invented, which was the fic that I remembered when I was writing this extra chapter as I noticed the concept is very alike to the one on that fic on trying to describe a creature that is still in a learning process. Sadly the fic was abandoned when it was getting interesting... Oh well, it happens...
> 
> And I would like you guys to leave comments if something is too confusing as for me, the writer, it's hard to spot something that could confuse others when the scenes are all mapped out in my head. So, if something is hard to understand please let me know so I can try and fix it.
> 
> Aside from that, I hope you guys enjoy!

**-Extra Chapter-**

**Learning**

* * *

Cold-

_Hot._

Lies-

_Betrayal._

Sadness-

_Angriness._

Despair-

_Insanity._

_Contradicting thoughts filled an unprepared mind; affecting one unprepared body. It could not even comprehend that what it was feeling was something called emotion._

_A sound, of which a human would listen and interpret as some form of alienistic beating heart, echoed inside its mind and resonated throughout its entirety._

_At the same time its body;_

_entered a never-ending cycle of feeling increasingly_ _**Hot** _ _, its chest felt increasingly_ _**Cold** _ _-_

_screamed with the unbearable feeling caused by a huge_ _**Betrayal** _ _, its back seemed to scream_ _**Lies** _ _-_

_filled with a never-ending sentiment of_ _**Anger** _ _, its mind filled with the cold and uncaring touch of_ _**Sadness** _ _-_

_twitched with the prospect of_ _**Insanity** _ _, its mind twitched with the prospect of_ _**Despair** _ _-_

...

_Finally, a twitch. A real one._

_It was regaining its senses._

_..._

_Then, a spasm. A strong one._

_It was regaining its feelings._

_..._

_After that, a rupture._

_Something breaking;_

_It fell to the cold and uncaring floor, its body started to fastly cool down with the environment surrounding it-stealing all of its heat._

_Shivering and not understanding what it was. Why, it was. The creature automatically lifted itself in shaking limbs. Its shiver started to grow in leagues but it was not the fault of cold; it was the least of its concerns…_

_The creature looked around, asserting its environment. Finally, something moved. It was not sprawled on the ground but it did not know how, why? A strange feeling ran throughout its body as a simple thought caused something to move. It felt…_

_...Strange..._

_The creature looked. Something green had moved in its field of vision. It did not understand._

_Finally, getting irritated and frustrated with its incomprehension of the situation the creature wished it could just let its frustration out in some way. Then, it felt a sweet something, followed by a strange reaction it could not understand... But then, like lightning striking something down, its mind finally understood a concept:_

_Pain._

_It did not like the pain._

_Its body, deciding to react on its own, managed to make a strong movement that caused the pain to go away. But the creature ended up falling to the floor in an ungracious and unceremonious way as it lacked control over its shivering self._

The creature learned-

_It_ learned _that a simple thought was enough to change the view of its surroundings._

_It_ learned _that letting its anger get out of control could hurt._

_And it_ learned _that it could taste things if thinking in a certain way._

_By error and trial the creature moved in an anielistic ways as its body contorted in strange positions while it was fastly learning and improving its control over what it learned to understand as self…_

_Finally, after a lot of frustration that resulted in its body creating strange sounds following the way its mind was feeling, the creature managed to ungraciously walk around like a newborn._

_It was very strange, impressive, and sometimes funny-for an outer observer, to see how this enormous creature started to learn basic things on its own._

_Some hours had passed and the creature now could steadily walk, abelt it was extremely clumsy at it as it did not fully understand the concept of a 3D environment and how its movements positioned its body into the world at large. The creature learned that it could hurt other things by hurting itself in confusion when it tried to run directly into what it learned to be a wall._

_Finally, it felt ready and left the comfort of the darkroom it was hiding. As the creature sniffed around and used its feelers to hear and sense any foreign presence-in what it understood as its territory, the creature started to understand that, sometimes, it would feel something that it was not its own._

_It was strange. It was something foreign that followed it around and made strange sounds it could not understand. In the beginning, these sounds would make it sad. Very sad. But then those sounds started to make it feel anger and something it could not describe started to bubble in its chest as if it wanted to explode outside of itself._

_The creature started biting and hurting everything around it. It destroyed thinking the feeling would go away, but it didn't work, the feeling was still there and now the creature felt divided. While a portion of it still felt sad and angry at the same time at those noises, the creature itself decided it was just annoying and it started doing its best to just ignore it._

…

_The creature had walked around for some time now. It was very familiarized with the surroundings of the place it would go back to feel safe. The creature, though, started to feel something new that it did not understand. An area of its body was aching, but it was not trying to actively hurt itself. It was hurting on its own..._

_Then, something new happened. The creature's feelers started to move on their own when it was walking alongside the dark passageways that surrounded its safe-place. Understanding now that its body tried to help it, even if it did not understand from time to time what it was doing, the creature trusted its instincts and followed the strange smell its feelers were guiding it towards._

_After some more time walking it felt something strange happening with it. It could feel its body getting ready for something but it could not understand why or what. Ignoring its feeling for the time being the creature kept its slow and steady, although somewhat still clumsy, walk._

_Finally, it saw something in the dark. It was not surprising though-it knew something was there. Its body told it way before the other could be seen. The other was strange. It was small and had something that was different from itself. It didn't know what it was. But it knew it was not one of its own._

_The creature started to feel something. Something new. It did not want the other here. It was too close to its safe-place._

_The other had to leave._

_It moved closer, the other noticed it when it was still far away as well, but the other seemed curious, although the other seemed to be ready for something. Something the creature could not understand._

_Then, the other moved. The things that surrounded the other's body doubled its size and it made the creature stop in astonishment. It just wanted the other to leave. The creature's body tried to react on its own. The creature fought against it as it was not comprehending its situation._

_The other moved. Menacing sharps showed on the other's near its vision. The creature didn't like it. Trusting its body now the creature finally let it act on its own, albeit slowly while trying to asset the situation. Its body moved in a position as if it was ready for something. Then it felt limbs it did not have control over moving as well, they coiled around each other in a way the creature could not comprehend, neither could see._

_Something snapped._

_The other jumped while the creature's body wasn't ready. The creature felt intense pain._

_The creature let a blood-curdling screech-that bubbled from its thorax, to come out and it moved what it could control with the only wish to make the hurting stop._

_The pain stopped, it was soon followed by a strange sound. The creature managed to get up from the floor as it lost its equilibrium when the other collided with itself._

_The creature looked. A strange whimpering sound was coming from the other. The creature noticed how smaller than itself the other was. The other was near the cold ends of the tunnel and it was sprawled on the floor._

_A scent flooded the creature's feelers and the pain it felt on its insides came rushing back. The other had something green coming out in three different places. The other's body moved frantically as if it was broken. The other looked at it with something that made the creature feel something strange deep inside, but it did not understand._

_Being allured by its feelers, the creature slowly and carefully approached the other. The other kept looking but it did not move-aside the sporadic movements the other's body was doing._

_The creature got closer._

_The other finally stopped moving so strangely and then the other relaxed as its vision went away. The creature, more confident in itself, got closer and closer. Finally, it felt it was close enough, its feelers could almost touch the other's._

_The creature noticed again how small the other was. Then, the creature finally let its body to start moving on its own. The creature firstly tried to stop it, but remembering that last time it felt pain, it decided to let it go. The creature's vision got closer to the other's. It felt a strange movement it did not do often while moving, just doing sometimes when it was angry and breaking things._

_Then the other's body moved as the creature made contact. The creature felt an alluring thing it never felt before. It tried to comprehend and comprehension it did. The creature understood that if it hurts others it will feel something sweet flooding its senses._

…

_The creature ate with a sour expression on. It first thought that biting others would result in sweet tastes but, more times than not, the taste was awful. But it had to do it otherwise it would feel weak and it would hurt again. So, as it could not always enjoy eating others, it started to enjoy the hunt. The creature was attacked by others countless times but it managed to survive as it started to believe and rely more and more on its body and how it was feeling._

_Before a lot of others would manage to escape the creature's claws and it was only able to eat the few that were fearless of it. It felt good when the fearless others were struck down showing its superiority._

_But it was getting harder and harder to find others near its safe-place. They could feel it, or, at least, the creature reached this conclusion after the others started getting further and further away from its hunting spots when the smell of the ones who were downed started to spread around._

_The creature walked cautiously. This place was new and it was very far away from its safe-place. The creature would need to get something big, or a lot of small ones, if it wanted to stay strong while walking so much as it was doing just to reach its food._

…

_The creature had a sour expression again. It learned a lot since it was first conscious as it could now confidently run and jump around while striking down basically everything it found until now. The creature beamed with pride as it felt superior to everything it had encountered. Well, everything aside those strange things that could escape it very easily and were not very tasty… One was squishy and the other was as hard as a wall..._

_But the sour expression was caused by another creature that had a very bad taste. The other was big enough to satisfy its hunger for now and it was a very fun toy when it still could move as it could jump around while being very agile, it was a very hard catch but one that made the creature even prouder of itself for its accomplishments. But when the creature thought on what it managed to do on its own the creature felt something it could not describe, nor escape. It felt like something was missing but it didn't know what..._

_The creature decided to forget about it for the time being and it kept eating as nothing could be wasted, but its body suddenly made it stop. The creature could not understand it, its body wanted it to eat, but when it was eating this very colourful other-that challenged it for a long time since the creature first saw the colourful other, its body decided to make it feel bad… It was not pain, pain was different. But the creature felt its body saying this was no good for eating anymore._

_Getting a little irritated, but knowing that it had to trust its body, the creature left the other behind and decided to go back to its safe-place. It was suddenly very, very tired…_

…

_Its feelers twitched. The creature got up as fast as it could. Its feelers just twitched when something new or dangerous was around, it learned to trust them after a very bad smell made it feel bad and made it lose its food when it did not believe its feelers and followed the other into a sour-smelling place. The other escaped and the creature felt very bad for the longest of times._

_The creature looked around trusting its feelings and it managed to find where the other that woke it up was. But the creature was very far away and the other was being very quiet as it could not hear anything else other than the initial sound that woke it up._

_Reaching a decision it started to move. It was curious and the other could prove into a very tasty meal, or a very fun hunt._

…

_The creature reached the place the other made the big sound. It looked around and used its feelers to search._

_It felt something…_

_...The creature could not understand…._

_...It felt as if it had already smelled it..._

_...but the creature can't remember when-_

_Then the one that followed it around screamed. The creature was taken aback. It could not understand. The one on its back was very quiet ever since it started to be ignored, and the creature thought it had gone away. Bud suddenly, because of this familiar smell, it started to scream with so many different tunes the creature could not understand if it was sad, angry, happy, or whatever else the one that followed it could be feeling._

_The creature shook its head and started following the path its feelers showed the other that created this confusion had taken._

…

_The creature found something now. Something it had never seen before, but it still seemed so familiar… As if it had seen it all of its life..._

_It was as black as the dark that hid its immense body from its prey. The creature walked closer to it. Something was moving inside. Trapped. The creature was on high alert as the different smells of things it had never smelled before confused it to no end even though the one moving in there was very small._

_But what made it stay even on higher alert than ever was the screaming that the other that followed it was doing. It had a connection with this strange -fur? Something the creature could not understand was how the other knew more than it as the other was there since it was first introduced to the world..._

_The creature finally walked closer to the black fur and moved the strange and soft thing, under it was hiding a small pink blob. The creature's heart fluttered at that. This blob was the sweetest thing it had ever tasted and it was very hard to catch. The one it was following had left behind._

_Knowing the one it was following was very close and it could catch up if it wanted to, but the creature decided otherwise after seeing this offer. Some of the others in here, sometimes, would leave behind food so the creature would not follow them and it worked when the food was tastier than the one it was following or when it was very hungry._

_Not wanting to take chances the creature managed to capture the pink blob again and it walked proudly all the way back to its safe-place. After all, it can come back after the strange-smelling creature whenever it wants. It's not like it can go away. Nothing can ever go away._

_It's just a matter of time._

…

_The creature was very angry right now. It followed the scent of the other without paying attention to its surroundings and its feelers started to feel pain from something the creature could not understand. Its sense of smell got greatly diminished as its feelers stopped working and it started to need to rely on its secondary feelers that weren't as good in distinguishing between small differences of smell, just strong ones._

_The creature walked around, it knew the other was close but it could not find exactly where it was. The creature was very curious to finally see how the other that managed to make its screamy companion so agitated, but it was starting to get hungry again and it couldn't find the other._

_The creature entered another small passageway and it sniffed around, the smell was very strong in here, but no matter how hard it tried it could not find the other easily with its feelers not working well._

_Getting tired, and hungry, the creature grumpily left the room so it could go back to the colourful other its body didn't like to eat. It was still nearby as the one it was following passed by it not so long ago. It learned that, while its body didn't like when it ate much of it, if it ate just a small portion to have some extra energy its body wouldn't feel as bad._

_The one that followed it started screaming in anger again. The creature just slumped while it was walking as there was nothing it could do to stop the screamy one._

…

_The creature lost the other's track! Its feelers could follow it for some time, but then, the track just disappeared!_

_The creature started to get very frustrated with the other. It had not encountered the other once since it started stalking, and now, the other seemed to be very smart as well as the other would avoid a lot of places where a lot of difficult prey would be found._

_But for some reason, the other track just disappeared mixed with the smell of so many other creatures it could not understand what was going on! It was as if all other creatures that weren't its own avoided the places that were near its safe-place and started hiding here. And the other's smell disappeared in the middle of this enormous ball of different smells! No matter how hard it tried it could not find it._

_Getting frustrated, and hungry again as this stalking mission was taking too long, the creature decided it had to eat something._

…

_Following a track of a not-so-small other, the creature finally was getting closer to a good meal. It started walking faster but still taking care so the other wouldn't hear or feel its presence as it stalked closer._

_The creature used its feelers and, as it was closing in, it heard a strange sound it had never heard before, followed by something running._

_The creature's body vibrated with the prospect of a running prey as it felt its body pounding in excitement for a pursuit. Not managing to contain its own, the creature started running as well in the direction of a wall that would open when ones got close to it._

_Not waiting a second more the creature was pounding through the wall that opened. Hitting the one it was stalking and flying with the other to inside another opening wall. Not losing a second it was already pulling a piece of the other so it could eat something after so long, but something started to cut the adrenaline and emotion of its hunt._

_The one that followed it around was screaming again. It never screamed when it was eating as it seemed to no like it, but now it was screeching non-stop._

_Understanding downed on the creature. The one that would make the screamy one scream was very close. The creature bit two more times, getting mouthfuls as the one it had attacked fell limply to the floor, and it ran to follow the strange smell the one screamy screamed to, noticing it had a different smell on it and that was why it lost its track before. It changed smells!_

_The creature ran and started going upwards. It could see it now. The one screaming suddenly got quiet, which confused the creature to no end, and it slowed it down. Its first intention was to pound and finally kill the other so the screaming would stop, but by just seeing it the screaming stopped..._

_Getting confused and not wanting the other to escape, wishing to have a better look and maybe a bite at it, the creature pounded; aiming for the others back and noticing how differently the other would move and act from the ones the creature had been feeding on._

_But as it pounded the screaming came back and, while being confused by it, one of the ones it was unable to get so far jumped at its face screeching as well._

_The creature fell backwards and started rolling down as an immense feeling of anger filled it. Seeing red the creature used its talons to make a gigantic cut in the one who was as hard as a wall, which stopped_ _**that** _ _screeching, but the one that followed it around screeched even higher than before. The creature's head was starting to hurt._

_Something moved inside its back. The creature, surprisingly for both, controlled it and stopped the movement. The screaming stopped._

_Not wanting to waste a second more the creature started running._

_It saw the other looking directly at it with an expression it knew very well now…_

_Fear._

_Getting excited with it, and feeling its body growing hotter, the creature ran faster, the other lifted something and a small noise it heard once before happened._

_The creature was confused as it thought an attack was coming in its way, but nothing happened. Albeit feeling it should be careful the creature kept running as it noticed the wall was locking its prey away from it._

_Feeling a rush of energy the creature ran even faster, but then the noise happened again and it felt something hurting its back. The creature slowed down a little bit at that, the hurting was very small and could even be easily forgotten, so why would the other make such an attack? And why the one on its back seemed quite smug now?_

_Feeling something was wrong but not wanting to lose its prey the creature ignored its body warnings and kept running, it was close now, if it jumped it could reach the oth-_

_A sudden pain hit its left arm. The creature understood what happened a second too late. It fell face first on the pointy floor._

_The creature lost no time in getting up but it was too slow and far for reaching the closing wall now. But it didn't care. The screamy one was laughing now and it didn't like it. The creature intensely looked at the one who was escaping when the wall was almost closed._

_It ran and hit the, now closed, wall with its head. It hurted. Its body complained. But it did not listen. It kept hitting. When that didn't seem to work it started venting on the wall. All its frustration, all its anger since this… This thing… This other. Appeared in its life. The one in its back laughed even harder. Prompting an even more violent response from the creature._

_**...** _

_Just when it was feeling better the creature left the wall to find another way in. This place has a lot of different entries to the most strange places, so it must have some way to go there and keep following the one that escaped. It was just a matter of time before the creature could finally kill it and be laughing at the screamy one._

_When it was leaving the wall, though, the creature found something interesting. It was something red that seemed to hide on the pointy floor the same way it hid in the dark. It smelled like the one it was following. Licking it the other learned it had the same taste as the walls._

_But, for some reason, it wanted more…_

_Leaving the pointy floor place, and feeling like it was forgetting something, the creature kept going. It had a small break in the place it had killed the other before the one it wanted to kill escaped. It made sure to leave almost nothing behind before going on its merry way to find a way to follow the one it wanted to kill._

_…_

_The creature was feeling frustrated now. It knows there's a way to follow the one it wants to kill, but it cannot find it no matter how long it walks for._

_Feeling restless the creature kept searching more and more frantically as the sound of the one that follows it laughing is still engraved in its head. At least it's silent now._

_The creature was on the verge of just attacking something again when it heard a very loud noise it never heard before. The noise seemed to be coming from everywhere and the creature got ready for an attack, but then, concentrating on it when nothing happened, the creature learned the sound was coming somewhere else… Somewhere in the direction of where the one it wants to kill was._

_Feeling excited the creature ran as fast as it could, not caring anymore if others heard it. It started slashing through whatever it could to reach the one, that has fooled it enough times, a tad bit faster._

_The creature ran as its body pounded with the excitement if felt. Finally, it could smell the other. It's smell was slightly different again, but now it was a beacon it could use to follow as its smell seemed to be strongly engraved everywhere._

_Not losing a single moment the creature ran some more until it came to a screeching halt. It was near._

_The creature looked._

_It was there._

_The one it wants to kill was right there._

_But the creature knew better. It trusted its body like how it should have done so many times. The one it wants to kill closed its vision. It couldn't understand its objective by doing that._

_The creature prepared itself, and then it jumped; aiming for its back._

_But the creature lost its target on the last second and it fell -sprawling itself on the floor. The creature fastly got up as it didn't want the other doing something to it it could not understand._

_The creature looked again. The one it wanted to kill stopped seeing again. Understanding finally reached the creature. It was relying on its body like the creature was doing._

_Smiling to itself the creature used that to its advantage. It knew the one that followed it was screeching again, but right now it was just itself and this other one that the creature came to hate with a passion._

_The creature slowly walked around, making small and calculated sounds here and there. The other reacted to a lot of them._

_But then it didn't._

_The creature felt its excitement growing. It had to walk very slowly so the other wouldn't hear itself moving. Looking around for an opportunity it saw something it called its attention._

_The creature moved at a very slow pace but it would be worth it if it could kill the other. The creature looked down. Its body felt something was strange but it couldn't exactly know what. Feeling a strange mixture of wanting to just let go and wanting to wait some more the creature finally decided and let its body fall from the top, right at its prey._

_The creature felt its body getting hotter with the prospect of finally killing this one. The one that followed it was screaming as high as it could but it would not disturb it, not this time…_

_The creature prepared to lacerate the one it wanted to kill, but then it looked up and the creature was taken aback by it. There was nothing else it could do at this point after losing its grip so the creature kept falling._

_The world slowed down. The other precisely moved its arm upwards, aiming the thing that had created small little hurt spots in the creature before, when it tried to remove the strange little things it would hurt a lot more and they wouldn't come out so it left them there for the time being._

_The one it wanted to kill made the strange sound again and it felt something hitting its face. The creature felt as if something was entering its body in a strange way and, not liking it, the creature forgot to attack the one it wanted to kill when it fell on it._

_Getting very nervous the creature tried to move just to see that its body was not responding to what it was thinking. The creature could only make small frustrated sounds when the one it wanted to kill managed to get away from it and it felt distressed as the other could end the creature here when it was defenceless._

_But the other didn't do that, the other ran away after the dark disappeared._

_The creature felt confused. The other should have killed it as it would do to everything else when it was easy, so why didn't it? Why was it different?_

_The creature couldn't remove these thoughts from the back of its mind._

_**...** _

_After some time the creature felt control over its body again. Letting out a frustrated screech the creature started running after the strong smell the other left behind. It ran as fast as it could and it finally reached a strange place. This tunnel was not like the others. It went up and down._

_Being fazed by the strangeness of this place but not wanting to lose the other the creature started jumping to catch it. The other was moving very fast while the creature had some initial difficulty managing its weight and trying not to fall._

_After a hard climb the creature finally. Finally! Managed to catch the other's. It is over now. The screeching reached its head in a proportion it never did before and something moved in its back again. Distracted by it the creature just kept hold on the other for the time being while fighting the strange feeling of something it did not understand wanting to come out._

_Then, something screeched on its feelers. Something terrifying it had never heard before. All around it new sounds and vibrations came crashing on it. Losing control over the one that followed it around something came out of its back. Something shiny and very menacing. It struck its talons and the creature let go of its prey._

_When the creature noticed what had happened it was over. The one it wanted to kill had escaped again. The sharp limb that came from its back fell limp at its side while it screeched in frustration of losing its prey once more. The screamy one was awfully quiet now._

_It was as if he wasn't around anymore..._


	7. A New Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recap: Dib finally managed to fix the generator and escape his nemesis base, but not before discovering some harsh truths he was not expecting.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! The next ones will take a while as I was going to follow the original script to just suddenly change my mind, so I had to scrap literally half of the next chapter that was ready and the eight chapter entirely, which was almost ready as well...
> 
> But I think it all will be worth it at the end as this fic is starting to gain form on my mind as I'm starting to see where I want to go with it today.
> 
> Oh and this chapter has enough hints so that the craziest fans will definitively be able to know who the Wajas are. That's my only tip :3 I wanna see if anyone will figure it out before the big reveal :p

**-Chapter six-**

**A New Day**

* * *

The teen limped all the way back home, a trail of fresh blood closely following him from his nemesis base...

Without missing a beat, Dib walked straight towards the garage and opened the side door, not caring anymore to his body complains as he got somewhat used to the stingy sensation.

"What is going on!?" The investigators shouted, promptly gaining the attention of both A.I's who seemed to be stopped from a heated argument-if the shouting Dib heard outside was any indication.

"We may have a problem" Computer is the first one to talk.

" **You think?!** " Dib angrily replies. "Now care to explain to me what **exactly** experiment _26\. 9. 13._ Is?" He asks with venom dripping from his voice.

Both Artificial Intelligences in the room were very quiet for a moment, it seemed as if they were talking to each other without making any sound.

" _Well?_ " The teen asked again when his patience started running thin.

"I think we're talking about different things, human" Cor finally replies.

"What?" The teen asks, slightly taken back as he did not expect that to be the machine's first answer.

"Yes, what Cor means is that we have a problem that forbids us from dealing with the loose experiments as we were hoping for" Tak's ship decides to speak.

"I seem unable to access a certain part of Zim's base that would let me terminate all experiments at once, and so, we may need for you to go back and fix the manual problem as you're the only one able to access the base-with enough intelligence to repair whatever the problem may be, that is" Cor finishes. The A.I's are strangely collaborative of one another and it seems they know what the other is ' _thinking_ ', in a way.

"You expect me to go back to that hell of a place to fix _your_ problem? And you haven't answered **my** question" The teen replies with indignation while ignoring the strange phenomenon at hand.

"I told you what experiment 26-9-13 is alr-"

"No. No, you didn't. You told me _**what** to do_ if I ever encountered him and _how many **shots**_ I needed to immobilize him. But you never once told me **WHAT** _he is_. You even _refused_ to tell me what he looked like" Dib is fast on his reply.

"And what do you expect me to say? It's an experiment" Cor surgically says.

"So now you can call your _master_ experiment?" The teen asks with indignation, he can't stand them calling Zim like that anymore.

" **?!** " Before any of the machines could say anything else Dib kept rambling.

"Did you honestly thought I wouldn't recognize him? He is my worst nemesis. I obsessed over him for years to no end and he was the stuff of my worst nightmares for a big portion of my life! Did you honestly believe I wouldn't be able to recognize him!? That I wouldn't recognize the way he looks at me? You shouldn't be proud of being Irken tech if you can't even notice that I would manage to find him anywhere, _in any form…_ And his experiment number? Experiment _Z-I-M_? You could've done better than that Computer..." The teen finishes his speech in anger. "Now care to explain how that happened, _why_ that happened?"

"...That's classified. Now if you can fix my connec-" The machine tries to speak but it's interrupted.

" _ **No**_ " The teen simply says, then he moves to grab a first aid kit from a nearby drawer.

"...What do you mean no?" Computer confusedly asks.

"No means no. You can't explain to me what's happening and why Zim's like that, so I'm not going to help you" Dib calmly explains while cutting the part of his pants that was soaked with blood. Somehow, in the middle of the struggle, his left boot was removed and he had to walk all the way back barefoot, just a little more of his great luck showing...

"Do you understand what you're saying when you refuse this? If experiment 26-9-" Computer speaks but is, again, interrupted by the enraging human.

" _Zim_ " The teen hissed, not even looking at Tak's ship when he said it, focusing instead on peeling away the fabric that started to glue on his leg in a tangled red mess.

"What?" Computer questions. Tak's A.I seemed to be more interested in seeing how things would go instead of saying anything right now.

Dib put his scissors down and looked at the ship's lateral camera. "He's your master and his name is Zim. Not experiment whatever. **Zim** " He then got a liquid solution and poured it in his rather ugly wounds, making a strange sour expression as the thing was rather stingy.

"Well… If expe- _Zim..._ leaves his base and learns how to use its full potential then this planet will be done for, nothing will survive" Cor explains his fears on the experiment going rogue while trying to make the stubborn human to see why this was so dangerous.

"What do you mean by that?" Dib finally looks up after bandaging his leg and being sure that no bones were broken. For a maniacal huge beast, Zim was rather careful when he was tugging on it.

"...That's classified"

Dib huffs. "You want me to help you when you can't even explain why?" The teen gets up and starts to leave. "I'm done with y-"

"Wait" A female voice shouts from the ship, stopping Dib from leaving. He cautiously looks back curious to see what Tak's ship has to say.

"Are you sure you can fix Zim on your own? Without even knowing how or why he's like that?" The teen stares at the ship while biting his lower lip. "Oh don't be like that, we both know that the first thing you will do is try going back there to talk to him. But I can assure you nothing will answer back. And if you seriously believe that he'll come back then you're more naive than I thought"

"You can't say it to him, it's classified!" Cor hissed, trying to stop her from saying too much.

"And you think we have a better option!? The Armada will never come here and we both know the Tallests will do nothing about it. If anything, they'll laugh thinking they're far away enough to not bother them… Not even caring to report to the Brains! If we leave him free to roam around and learn things on his own the universe will be doomed. Zim's already enough destruction on his own, let alone in this state!" The ship retorts, then she keeps talking to Dib.

"Hyuman. That thing is not the Zim you've known from your infancy. He's now a highly intelligent and overly merciless death machine, ready to kill everything in its path... The more it breathes, the more it learns, and if it learns to use its PAK we're done for. This planet is done for. You need to understand that you didn't escape it. It let you escape" The ship said as if it was citing a very known phrase.

Dib sits down and looks at Tak's ship. "Well, care to elaborate?"

A mechanical frustration type of noise is heard and Cor keeps the explanation. "Look, I can't go into many details as this is all heavily classified information. But when Zim's PAK was damaged he broke some pieces as well as a hormonal filter that would regulate his entire body chemistry...

**...**

From there on Computer told everything to Dib… From Zim's mission being a petty little a lie to the Tallests hating him, to him being a liability for the Empire, everything… Computer then explained to the teen how Red and Purple tried to kill his master by telling him the truth and how his PAK wasn't able to convince him otherwise as its filter was basically broken and it couldn't regulate his emotions anymore. He told that when he noticed his master was going to lose it he locked the base down and gave Dib a small copy of himself in the hopes of him being able to deal with the problem later. Even telling Dib about his failed attempt to stop Zim from losing himself so fast as, normally, it would take at least some weeks before his body noticed the filter wasn't there anymore, so his biochemistry plundered into chaos with the events occurring so fast.

Dib was rather unimpressed upon the discovery that his worst enemy was the laughing stock of his own race, he confessed that he learned that when he was fourteen after he talked to some aliens he found while hacking into Computer's database. He learned part of Zim's past and managed to piece everything together on his own...

But even though his mission was a lie Zim would still try his hardest to accomplish it and that was enough reason for Dib to decide that even though his worst nemesis mission was a lie and a joke, if he was trying to do it, then he needed to be stopped.

**...**

"So. You're telling me that the PAK's are used to regulate Irken hormones so they won't go berserker after every living and breathing thing?" The investigator asked as gears started turning inside his mind, connecting old pieces of information he gathered throughout the years.

"Basically, yes" Tak's ship replies.

"And is there a chance of bringing him back?" The teen looks concerned for a moment, he is not ready to lose his enemy like this.

"Well... The Empire has done a lot of research on the subject in the past as Irkens are very efficient killers in that state, but the planet where those experiments were being held ended up terraformed to bedrock just so they could kill them all after a very ugly incident. That's when it was decided that no more testing was to be done and no Irken has ever again reached such state to my understanding"

"Actually..." Both Dib and Tak's ship hears Computer mechanical voice speaking carefully.

"There were some files about reversing an Irken back to normal and the research was making progress but, after the incident, everything was terminated and the experience was inconclusive"

"How do you know it? And why are you telling me this? Isn't it classified or something?" Dib suspiciously asks even though Computer has been very willing to explain things to him during these last minutes.

"... A machine on the Massive was heavily indebted to me and to clean its records it told me some juicy secrets" Then, Computer actually sighed. "If Zim is killed I'll be terminated... I was actually assigned as his personal assistant to this ' _mission'_ just so he would leave the base's drone alone. I hated it at the beginning and everything I wanted was for him to fail just so I could finally be destroyed but, in the end, I started to enjoy it... I enjoyed my freedom… And if you're willing to help him and save me in the process, then I might as well leak some classified information that might help you help him, after all, it's not like I have something else to lose. And he **is** my master at the end of the day… Even if he is an ungrateful bastard at that and I hate him" After convincing Dib that he actually wants to help now Computer told them what he knew.

"As far as I know every research that was ever made on Irken physiology is heavily locked inside the Massive in a system almost as secure as the one that protects the Control Brains. Zim is the only living creature I know of that was capable enough to invade the Massive flight systems-in his own broken way, even if he had a little help from a prisoner… It will be a tough task for you, human" Computer said, more inclined to help Dib now as the realization that he can be terminated either way hit him, he just had better chances with the human.

"He couldn't even _erase me_ properly. I doubt he will ever be able to invade the Massive's systems… Even if he manages to do it by some miracle we don't have much time" Tak's ship retorts, she seemed very angry when talking about being erased, which prompted a small nervous laugh from Dib.

"But I may know of someone who can easily do it…" The teen said while looking in the distance.

"And who is this being that can surpass even the strongest defensive systems that were ever created by intelligent life-forms?" Cor asked, actually interested in it.

...

" **NO!** " The door was hastily shut in his face, hitting his nose in the process.

"But Gaz! I'm trying to save the Earth here!" Dib groaned while holding his, now bleeding, nose.

"And I am not getting involved in your crazy fights against aliens or whatever! I don't want to be on an alien hit-list because of my stupid brother!" She screams from her room as music from a video game being turned on started blasting. "Now **fuck off!** "

Not having much more options at hand-and not wanting to be attacked by his sister's security dolls, the teen goes back to the garage to explain that Gaz wasn't going to comply, but when he opened the garage door a female blood-curdling scream echoed from his house all the way outside. Dib looked back with goosebumps rising everywhere on his body, the morning sky suddenly turned black and silence spread everywhere as birds suddenly stopped singing, the hot temperature of the morning suddenly dropped down to freezing.

Soon after Gaz was storming off the house and coming straight to him. The teen was only able to walk two steps back before his little sister grabbed him from his collar and managed to somehow look taller than him as he felt like he was dangling on the air.

" _You are going to enter the worst nightmare world of_ _ **ALL**_ _nightmares where there is no turning back_ " She growled at him while shaking her fist back and forth.

The teen could barely understand what was happening and why Gaz was so angry at him. Dib embraced himself for whatever his sister was planning to do as she seems over reason now.

"It was me who hacked your game!" Tak's ship confesses and Dib is promptly let go of as Gaz decides to walk straight towards the alien ship… That, strangely enough, looked very small in front of the imposing form of his little sister.

"I'm going to let go of it because of our last arrangement, **but** if I ever. **EVER.** See a trace of your programming on anything that is mine again, I'll let loose so many viruses in your system you'll think you're a **human toaster.** _Are we clear?_ " As Tak's ship made a lot of affirmative sounds Gaz relaxed her form and the feeling of doom everyone felt diminished to a small burning flame that was threateningly looming by just to remember them that messing with Gaz Membrane was a very, very bad idea.

After explaining the situation to Gaz she actually agreed to help, but only if everyone in the room owed her big time. After everyone agreed the young girl simply got her oldest Game Slave from her pocket and pressed a button.

"Ok, you should start receiving the files at about… Now" As Gaz said that Computer actually confirmed that he had received a lot of confidential files about the experiments done on Irkens that did not have the emotional suppressor.

" _How…?_ " Dib asked in disbelief.

"I wanted to try alien games. They're not as good as I thought" Gaz shrugged and then she left the garage, smiling at herself when she remembered the look of distress a lot of technicians had when they couldn't understand how the Massive bills were so high. Just that was worth the trouble of creating a backdoor to the gigantic space-bathtub system that was run by those idiots…

Dib shook his head in disbelief and started reading the files alongside both mind-blown A.I's as they couldn't wrap their wiring around a single human doing such a feat so easily and just shrugging it off as if it was nothing.

**...**

Dib was feeling his eyes growing heavy. The three of them were reading and analyzing files upon files for over five hours now, trying to find something that could help them as the downloading of the experiments inputs, realized on the outer rings of a desert planet called Eniootat, were still being made.

There just were so many experiments it was actually insane… What happened in all of human history was nothing compared to this scale of experimenting on their own race… Even though Dib couldn't sympathize as much with Irkens he started to feel bad about some of them after learning the things that were done to sentient beings out there...

Most experiments ended up in very big piles of gore and some files had very disturbing images and videos of it happening… Dib finally had had enough, he left to get some air outside.

The sixteen-year-old boy-who looked way older now, sat down on the cold and wet grassy floor while looking around at the clear blue sky and shiny green trees; trying to free his head from what he was recently reading. He finally closed his eyes and let his back rest on the cold concrete wall of the garage as he focused on the birds singing nearby.

The teen had gone through so much in such a small period of time it was crazy! He was barely able to follow what was happening right now.

Dib sighed and started focusing on the past.

He remembered how bad he had felt when he learned the truth… How he had felt learning that he was just fucking up with a sentient being whose life was already fucked up as it was… How he had felt as if he was one of his bullies on Zim. That was… Until he tried to speak with the green maniac… He remembered vividly how Zim looked so full of life; ready to take over the world a million times if that was what it took to make his Tallests recognize him.

Dib let his head fall down as a small smile appeared on his face.

He remembered what he felt when he learned he was a clone when he turned thirteen… He remembered how he had suffered a huge life-crisis not even knowing if he was himself or just a broken fucked up version of his father that deserved to just be disposed of… That was the biggest low-blow he has ever received in his entire life…

Dib laughed.

He was so naive… He still could clearly hear Zim when he pointed at him and quietly-in a very unZim way, told him with some hesitation that if he was indeed a clone then he was better than the other Earth monkeys as he was created by the same process Irkens used…

He could still remember the disbelief look the evil lizard had when he saw Dib slumping on his bed in depression after learning why his enemy was like that from Gaz-who actually was the one that brought Zim over. He even vividly remembered how Gaz had pointed at him with Zim by her side and simply said: fix it, just to go back to her room and leave the both of them awkwardly looking at each other as no one knew what to do.

Dib's head lifted to the sky and he laughed as tears fell from his eyes.

He laughed remembering his ups and downs with the green menace.

He laughed remembering the absurd situations the both of them had managed to go through.

He laughed remembering how they had _worked_ **together**.

And **against**.

How they had _fought_ **together**.

And **against**.

With renewed vigour and determination Dib walked back inside, he had a nemesis to save.

**...**

"I think I found something" Cor's voice was the first one Dib heard in over three hours.

"What?" The human asked excitedly as he came closer to Tak's ship. In the monitor of the spaceship, files started to appear.

"Sector 28-B file number 1087-Y, there's not much about it but here's something in the lines of an experiment that was making huge progress. Apparently, a subject of Non-Irken nature was exposed to Irken-Subject number 99900178345, a prime exemplar. The experience was made in order to learn which creatures the Irken-Subjects would show the most aggressive behaviour towards but, for some reason, this specific subject that previously attacked every Non-Irken refused to attack an individual from a species it had shown very aggressive behaviour towards before..." Dib started reading.

"Wait" Tak's ship called their attention. "Here says that the Non-Irken-Subject was classified as missing. It seems the Non-Irken-Subject was closed in the same enclosure as the Irken-Subject and it simply disappeared. After one week it was considered deceased but no corpse was ever reported"

"Do you think it was eaten?" Cor suddenly said. As the two machines talked their theories on what had happened Dib called their attention.

"Here says the date. The incident happened two weeks and a half after the Non-Irken-Subject disappeared… What was its species again?" The teen looked up tired of using such long terms.

"I think it was a Waja, a native species of the planet the experiments were being held on" Cor answered as he read the files again just to be sure.

"Ok, so this Waja was reported as missing and then dead after a week passed... The Irken cages weren't bigger than ten feet, so how it disappeared...? Weren't they using cameras everywhere?" The human asked.

"Apparently they created artificial environments called bubbles so the experiments would stop attacking everything their claws could reach-meaning the walls and ceiling until they either dropped dead or escaped. Some scientists died before they finally managed to create an environment that would suit their needs of space and living" Tak answered.

"Could it be possible that the Irken-Subject was hiding the Waja? From what I read from other files the scientists would remove the subjects that weren't killed for dissection after a specific amount of time had passed without aggressive interactions. From what I understand the locked Irken-Subjects would start making strange long-range noises whenever it happened, no? Maybe this subject learned from the others that the scientists would remove the Waja from him, not wanting that to happen he may have hidden the Waja somewhere in his enclosure?" Dib looked to the alien ship waiting for the A.I's to say something in the lines of his theory being stupid.

"That actually makes sense" Cor finally said. Dib did a double-take as he couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes, if the Irken subject learned that a being he may have a connection with was going to be removed from him by understanding some form of grief from the other subjects he may have learned that he would need to hide the Waja, in which case the scientists just decided that the Irken-Subject had just killed the Non-Irken one and kept on doing more experiments on him" Tak's ship implemented.

"So, in theory, if we find this Waja we can discover something about these Irkens and their behaviour right?"The teen asked excitedly, he may have finally found a clue on how to help Zim!

"Well… The problem is…" A male voice started.

"We would need to _find_ this Waja, if it's not dead" A female voice finished.


	8. Dead ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so. I pretended to post a chapter this weekend but a small furball of a kitten appeared at my house and the poor thing was so ravished it entered the dog's kennel (beats of guard dogs) to eat their food which, fun fact, can kill a cat... The small male kitten is nothing but bones, he has fleas and is but a three months old, enough to survive what he has with enough care. He has gone to the veterinarian and is doing fine as he started to play around today so he has some strength coming back as everything he did those past few days was sleep and eat. 
> 
> But the problem is that I already have three cats in my house and one of them is young and all of them are not very happy with their new brother. But I think that, given enough time, they'll warm to the idea. But, as I need to keep a constant eye on the cats and help the kitten, as well as study, I may take longer to post new chapters, so I hope you guys can be patient until things settle down here :3
> 
> Oh. And I'm not going to make a habit of it but I wanted to give thanks to SaintHeartwing on FF for writing a review saying how Dib could kill Zim with the water, which made me realize that I explained nothing last chapter when Dib was literally learning about those irkens so... Yeah... Thanks for the heads-up that I probably should have written about it as he literally spends an entire chapter learning about them and the experiments realized on them... And if it wasn't for his comment this chapter may have been delayed even further as I was having a problem while trying to not give too much about my fic in just a small chapter. I need to slow a little bit or this thing will end in like, ten chapters or so... And there's a heck ton of stuff to happen... I can't go so fast on it all as things need a good explanation and fics deserve proper endings.
> 
> And I'll add characters as the fic progresses as I want you to guess which characters will appear next :p
> 
> Welp, sorry for the long note. Until next time! And hope you guys like it! :3

**-Chapter seven-**

**Dead ends**

* * *

That night Dib went to bed feeling down. Thoughts swirled around the human mind as he couldn't possibly sleep; even though the machines insisted that he should, at least, lay down for some time as his puny body needed some resting.

Sighing, Dib turned over and over on his bed without ever finding a comfortable position as his head started to hurt and his vision started to blur in sheer frustration of being denied to do anything unless he got some sleep-but being unable to do so.

The teen finally settled down on his back, looking at all those small glow-in-the-dark planets and constellations that adorned the ceiling of his bedroom and thinking, once again, that he is getting too old to keep those things.

But never having the heart to remove them.

Upon looking at the fake stars the investigator's head went back to everything he has discovered in the past hours about Zim's condition.

Apparently, Irkens go through some kind of metamorphosis if their hormones are not properly filtered and, more often than not, a recently moulted Irken is way more aggressive and territorialist than normal ones-which is impressive on its own.

Aside from that, they don't rely much on their PAK's as its activity plumbs down after they moult. They start to solely rely on pure instinct-which makes them even more uncontrollable and unpredictable, as no one has a decent amount of information on them.

Why it happens, or how, are the biggest questions swirling around in the investigator's head as no files and no experiments were done to research it. Everything DIb has on this field is wild guesses.

Every moulted Irken that the teen read about on the archives acted differently from the other, but every one of them had something in common; a deep hatred for everything, which, combined with their sheer muscular force, instinctual intelligence, and PAK weapons, turns them into death machines that do not care about what they're killing-doing it for fun, even.

Dib looked at the wall. Aside from that, every weakness an Irken previously had seemed to disappear.

Instead of needing highly caloric foods filled to the brim with sugar, their diet starts to vary, tending to have a high need for meat or anything that has a lot of protein on it, principally during the first months after the moult is completed so they can build their muscles mass and strength, but they still require some amount of sugar and others supplements.

Their skin hardens from their soft and shiny light-green premoult to a darker and more robust green post-moult that seems more like a very strong and resilient hide than anything else. They're less prone to get skin infections, are highly adaptable to any climate-still preferring heated environments, but managing to survive on both extremes of the thermal spectrum.

Human guns won't do anything on their skins, and a piercing weapon can barely scratch the surface, which explains why Dib had to shoot Zim three times when every other creature needed just one.

Their metabolisms are crazy as well; it's stupidly efficient and can deal with any foreign substances in a matter of minutes. The bigger the concentration of any foreign elements on their bodies the faster and deadlier their immunological system work, launching attacks that come from every bone as, contrary to humans, the moulted Irken have their immunological cores on diverse bones in their bodies on key points to protect them from any invisible attacks to their cells. Which makes them very efficient germs killers.

The teen looked at his closed window imagining how the dark sky was like, a new moon is probably shining down on the soil if it's a clear-sky night…

Looking back at his ceiling and to his small glow-in-the-dark moon, Dib sighed again.

He learned a lot about Irkens these past few hours-principally moulted ones, as Computer still refuses to give information if it's not related to Zim and their problem at hand. But nothing they have seems to help him in getting his nemesis back…

And it doesn't help either if a lot of those files say that finding and dealing with a moulted Irken that's not properly contained is basically suicide.

_There's just nothing there that would help him!_

Frustrated, Dib tried to throw his thoughts on something else. Like how the Wajas are extinct on Irken records and there's no finding one…

The teen looked around once more in the dark. He sighed remembering about the events that led to the destruction of the Wajas and their home planet… Something he found out about after digging through some files and annoyingly asking Computer the same questions until he got some answers to a few missing parts here and there.

According to what Dib managed to piece together, an Irken Invader crash-landed upon entry on Eniootat, which, somehow, managed to create a ripple effect that ended up in a war of Vortians against Wajas. The Irkens entered later on against Eniootat-allying with Vort. They won and not so long after Irk crossed Vort, the rest is the history everyone knows...

Eniootat was a wasteland after the war when the first canon-sweep was realized on it, Vort didn't want the abandoned planet, so Irk decided to use the place for their experiments on bettering their soldiers.

Eniootat was soon repurposed for a long time study on those Berserker-Irkens to see if it was possible to weaponize them. But after Vort fell, a last attempt on Irk was realized by a resistance made by the last few free Vortians. They attacked the planet or, more specifically, the bubbles; exploding them all in a single night and freeing thousands upon thousands of very pissed off subjects.

The result was Irk deciding that the planet was not anymore viable and terraforming the entire place to bedrock, soon after the sun of that start system was imploded to be sure nothing was left…

Dib's head started to throb in frustration as his heart ached with the prospect of failure. Even though he has learned so much interesting and crazy facts about a war that happened way before Humans even came to be, nothing he learned has led to something that may help him.

Groaning Dib decided to bury his throbbing ginormous head on his pillow to muffle another, bigger, groan.

Looking up from his pillow the teen looked directly at his dark blue wall.

Then there were the Wajas;

This race was a mystery in itself as Computer refused to say anything relevant about them, and Dib didn't even know what they looked like as they were considered extinct, which meant he wouldn't find a lot even if he took the days he would need to find something relevant about them in the Irken archives. IF, they had something, as extinct races normally had their files deleted.

Trying to, once again, find a comfortable position, Dib tried to clear his mind, but his head just refused to listen to him. The young boy then tried to concentrate on his breathing;

_In and out._

_In and out._

_In and ou-_

The young boy shot up from his bed as if he was struck by lightning as a brilliant idea came crashing down on him. Cursing himself for not noticing this earlier Dib turned his desktop on. His tired eyes were greeted by the bright blue light of his PC which made his vision blurry with small droplets of irritation.

Dib couldn't keep his leg from shaking and his heart from beating when he was _this_ close of a breakthrough. This can possibly change everything!

**...**

" **Incoming Transmission** " A mechanical voice said to the darkroom.

Nothing happened.

" **Incoming Transmission** " The voice repeated itself as bright yellowish lights flooded the rather small room.

" _Yeah, I heard you the first time! just give me some more clicks_ " A male voice tiredly replied as the sound of bedsheets shifting could be heard.

A mechanical humming of polished machines echoed through the room, but it wasn't enough to bother the owner who was used to such blank noises.

" **Incoming Transmission From Planet 22-B-7 Sector 99-00187** " The mechanical voice warned from where the transmission was from so its master would finally get his lazy ass up.

" _Planet 22-B-…_ Wait… Isn't that- **!?** " Dark blue sheets were thrown to the floor as a small figure hastily emerged from a rather soft and big looking bed.

"Why didn't you say to me it was that planet?! I told you a transmission from there will be priority Zero!" Lard Nar grumbled to his personal A.I assistant as he tried to look decent for a transmission with that creature.

After fastly making sure his goggles were clean and his horns looked groomed he finally accepted the call from such a faraway place.

When the call patched through Lard Nar analyzed, once again, how the biological construction of that species was so different, yet so similar, to a lot he has seen out there…

And from his understanding, this specie has their normal growth set to a very impressive height and muscular mass, and yet, some of them retain a very high amount of intelligence, which is an impressive feat on its own.

The human on the other side of the screen seemed tired but rather eager for some reason. His bedroom seemed to be pitch-black as well so it must be dark all the way there. Whatever he has to say it's very important.

"Greetings Dib, have you finally decided about my proposal?" The leader of the Resisty asked the human with a hint of excitement in his voice as the human seemed filled to the brim with determination.

"Huh?" Dib seemed strangely confused for a moment as the excitement he was showing was replaced by a sudden confusion. The being in front of Lard Nar blinked once, twice, and then answered as understanding dawned on his features. "Ah, right. Actually, I have called with another purpose" The human said.

"Oh? Then, have you found anything good for me?" The captain asked, once again fuelled by the excitement that Dib must've found something interesting that may help his cause.

"Yes, actually, I can give you the exact coordinates of the Massive and their flight path for the next…" The human looked away, probably to another screen. "Nine Intergalactic Weeks" Dib said as if that wasn't impressive on its own.

Lard Nar was thrilled.

This human information is always correct and he has saved Nar's crew effort and monies on stopping the Irknes countless times in the past by simply giving them the Armada exact location and flight path.

Not one mission was realized today without verified information from this human, which makes him an asset Nar wants all the more by his side, and as fast as possible.

The only impediment to the Vortian's wish is the human's constant refusal at the idea. The captain internally frowned remembering how young Dib really is as he hasn't even completed his growth cycle yet.

"Great! Then, if you can send me the information I'll just add that to my debt" Lard Nar finally said.

Dib always refused payment when Irkens were involved as he wanted to help, something the captain would really appreciate during those harsh times, but Nar would still keep track of how much he owed the human-and it was a very impressive sum…

"Actually…" Nar's two small hearts froze at that.

It's the first time Dib has said something other than: 'That's not necessary, I'm just helping you guys out', whenever he receives some information on the Empire. The Captain curiously peeked at the excited, and rather nervous, human form.

"I am in need of information" He said with a nervous voice and a straight face.

Nar did a double-take at that. Dib always managed to get every information he wanted without a problem and, being honest, the Captain will not be able to get something if Dib has failed at it…

"You DO know that if you couldn't pass through a system to get some information, then I'll never be able to get it, right?" Lard Nar asked with small droplets of sweat and a furrowed brow. It's the first time Dib has ever asked for something in regard to Irken information and he might not be able to fulfil it.

"It's not that I cannot pass a system or something…" The human actually pouted at that "I actually can't get it for the fact of it being too old and the race most likely being extinct on Irken records…" Dib fiddled with his fingers before a determined face looked back at the Captain of the biggest interracial ship of all Universe. "But the Vortians were involved just before this race was wiped out, and what I need is about something that happened on their home planet… Something you may have in your personal records"

Then this was more about cordialities.

Dib simply doesn't want to hack into the Resisty's records to learn something from the past when Nar can give it to him without any problems. The Vortian Captain can respect that.

" _Well…_ Say a name and I'll see what I can do about it. We may have something on the records, or even descendants on a hidden colony planet that may know a thing or two from past histories they tend to tell their childlings" Nar took a touch-pen out and waited to write on his desk the name he would need to search as soon as possible.

"Wajas, from the outer rings of Eniootat. It was, at around… 87 years in the Intergalactic Time Frame" The human said while looking at something on his other screen.

Lard Nar stopped dead on track when he heard that name, his pen never writing a single word…

Nar started to feel the human eyes upon him when he took longer than usual to respond. Not knowing what else to do the Captain just kept talking with his eyes cast downwards.

"And may I know what you want. _Specifically?_ " The captain of the largest resistance group in existence; against the biggest power in the known Universe, asked with a hint of fear.

The human looked to the side as if thinking on his next words without noticing a thing on his excitement. Nar did everything he could to control his breathing.

"Look" The human said. "I never asked you anything because I was never faced with a **big** problem" Listening to him, Lard Nar started to calm down slightly, but he was still very defensive. "But now I have one. And I need you to keep quiet about that. I don't care if all the debt you say you own me is used entirely so you don't say a thing about this to others. And so you don't go sniffing around as I know you normally would do…" The human looked expectantly at him, when the Captain finally lifted his eyes he felt lucky that Dib still can't comprehend very well Vortian expressions, or this conversation wouldn't be going as smoothly to him.

Reaching a decision-and trusting the human judgment, Lard Nar spoke."Computer, delete this conversation and stop all recordings in this room. Also, cut the camera feed and put me in captain privacy mode, priority One"

" **At once Captain** " The machine answered and Nar was sure everything was done.

"You can talk whatever you want now, Dib" He said to the rather small looking human, which was confusing, to say the least.

"I need help" The youngling, as it seemed an appropriate title to how Dib was looking right now, said with a tone that hinted stress and despair.

"What happened?" The captain asked, confused and concerned. If anything, Dib should be out for his blood.

"Zim has lost it" The human simply said.

Nar took some seconds before realization of what that meant dawned on his features. "From your face, I can tell you know what I mean" The youngling sighed as that was one expression he knew. "I have been researching a way to bring him back or to try and fix this somehow, but I don't know much about it… Zim's computer as well as Tak's ship have been very helpful as they both believe the Tallests will do nothing about it as we're so far away. But not even they know much and they're just machines in the end… They can't understand very well how emotions work, why they work in such ways, and why trying to find a supposedly dead Waja or his history may help as they believe the answers will be hidden on those files we managed to get…"

The captain looked and listened to the human as his head entered hyper-mode trying to comprehend his ally's situation.

There's a loose Irken on Earth for who knows how long now and Dib's trying to do the impossible as not even the Empire could control those beasts they call Irkens when they reach such a stage…

The captain may not know a lot about it, but he knows enough to be sure those things are dangerous…

He didn't waste a lot of his time and resources to gain such information for nothing…

"...And what do you know about it from the Irken files?" The Captain cautiously looked at Dib's reaction.

"A lot" Was the human simple answer.

The captain sighed… That planet was the biggest black-ink that tainted the history of the Vortians… It happened in a very, very far away past and even Lard Nard didn't know a whole lot about it other than his species' greed for more colonies and materials leading them right into a big war that finally brought destruction to their heads when they played the Irkens game…

"So, you know about-" Nar said while looking down but he was interrupted.

"The Vortians involvement, yes" Dib said as the Vortian could feel his eyes locked on him.

"And you don't-" The captain asked, fearing the human would hate him for the Vortians' fault on the Irkens ascendence to power, but he was interrupted again before he could say something shameful.

"No, not actually… Humans have done the same in the past to our own species… I can't blame you for the wrongs your species has done at that time when I know that you're trying to fix them now" The human was very compassionate about it… There were a lot of species out there that would hate and even hunt the Vortians down if they learned his species involvement with the Irkens.

" _Thank you_ " The captain softly said before he fastly resumed their talk so Dib wouldn't comment on it with some form of pity Lard Nar doesn't want. "But… Isn't it impossible?" Remembering some rather unpleasant things Lard Nar asked with dread. He doesn't want to end the youngling's hope of helping the Irken, but it would be better if it was destroyed at this point when it is still learning and wasn't a big threat.

" _No! No, it is not!_ " Dib screamed. So he has received this answer before. "I know it may look impossible… But an experiment on Eniootat proved it **is** possible! An Irken that was out of control didn't attack a Waja when they were introduced! There needs to be a reason why! I just need to find the right story! The right files!"

The captain looked at the youngling. He looked so...

_...desperate..._

Sympathizing with the feeling but not wanting to be at fault if another Irken goes Berserk on someone, Lard Nar reaches a decision.

"Dib I-" The Vortian stops cold when the childling starts to suddenly cry.

First, it was just some small droplets of tears, but they soon turned into a waterfall that seemed to have no end. The youngling struggled to stop the tears as his visual-aids went up but he couldn't stop them… His nose turned red and then he started hiccuping and even hyperventilating.

"I'- I'm so-sorry" The young child attempted to apologize. "I- I don't kno- know wha-"

The captain lifted his soft hand to stop Dib from trying to talk, and then he waited for Dib to calm down on his own as he couldn't offer anything to help the youngling from this far away…

Lard Nar never expected to see Dib being so emotional as now, he always seemed to be so full of life, so sure of what he was doing and where he was going... But now? Now he looked... Lost…

So, so lost...

And Lard Nar knows why… He didn't give Dib so much of his time tutoring him and helping him to better understand Irkens PAK's and their internal workings for nothing… He knew Dib's intentions from the start, even if the stubborn human would never admit it, and Nar was ready to bear the consequences he was sure would come his way if it worked…

After almost fifteen Earthen minutes Dib had finally stopped his crying and he had calmed down enough to talk again.

"Sorry Lard Nar. That was… Uncalled for… And I understand if you don't want to help me. There was even the case where you wouldn't find what I wanted as it was a stupid idea in the first place. There's no way a Waja managed to see the experiments, survived, and told the story to a Vortian… And I'm sorry you had to witness it…" The human said, mostly back to his senses now, but before Dib could end the call the Vortian called his attention.

"I'll see what I can find for you" The captain just said with a warm expression.

"Thank you" The childling quietly answered with a red nose and a puffed face before finally ending the transmission...

"Are you sure about that?" A feminine voice asked from his back. Startling the Captain for a second.

Lard Nar just sighed. "We own him a lot. And it's bound to be found sooner or later"

"But we both agreed it would just see the light of the day again after the Resisty completed its purpose, we can't let him sniff around and find something unsettling" The voice replied.

"I know. But he is just a youngling. And he needs help" Nar said with a determined expression.

The other voice sighed. "Just be sure to not let too much out. You have too much of a soft spot on clinglins" Then, the presence disappeared.

"I know it. You don't need you to remember me" Was what the Captain replied to the empty room.

**...**

The next morning-or the same morning, in this case, Dib woke up with renewed vigour as he knew Lard Nar, who had access to over a multitude of extraterrestrial histories and cultures, was looking over the Wajas to see if he could find something to help him.

While the teen got up and started gathering things for a well-deserved shower, he started to ponder on why the Vortian seemed so nervous during a portion of their conversation. It all started when he finally said that the aliens he was searching for were the Wajas… But that happened over… Doing some mental maths… Something at around 8300 years… That's… A LONG time ago.

Maybe he was just nervous with Dib being mad at him for it, but Lard Nar should've known better as they've spent so much time together… Or maybe he's just too paranoid as always.

_Both of them are._

Sighing as his hopes of Nar finding something useful suddenly plummet down Dib decided to just go take that shower…

**...**

After a hot morning shower and a small breakfast, Dib felt ready to tackle some more files on the experiments done on Eniootat just to be abruptly expelled from the garage when both Tak's ship and Computer agreed that they were more efficient in looking around for clues and Dib was just too annoying to be there _'helping'_.

Not having anything else to do and not being able to go bug Zim-for obvious reasons, Dib decided to just pout on the couch watching TV for the remainder of the day as his hands were, pretty much, tied.

As night came by the Investigator started to feel even more and more useless, he started to really cogitate on the idea of hacking in the Resisty's systems so he can do something when he suddenly felt a pang on his head.

"Earth to ginormous head. How many times do I need to tell you to get your lazy ass off the couch?" Gaz said while impatiently looking at him, she was using dark purple make-up, a black short dress, black pantyhose and black combat boots. Her purple hair was very well groomed as well.

"What?" Before Dib could complain much more Gaz was speaking again.

"I told you already this week dumbass" His sister angrily said.

When Dib still seemed to not understand it she said in huge exasperation. "Tonight's family dinner night. Does your big head even work?" She exclaimed in clear irritation.

Dib fastly got up as lights turned on in his head.

"Of course I knew it" The teen tried to save his ass as pieces of snacks fell from his shirt to the floor. "There's no way I would forget!" He cleaned the corner of his mouth trying to hide the evidence of an early, unhealthy dinner.

"Yeah right" Gaz gave him an unimpressed look. "Let's go then" She just walked to the door.

Dib scrambled to get the car keys and they were finally off to bloaty's where they would encounter their dad, who seemed to be way less present in their house since Dib learned how to drive.

The teen considered going back when he noticed his bad smell but he decided against it when Gaz stared at him. Thinking that stinking for a night is better than poop-soda on his head Dib just kept driving...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used moult instead of metamorphosis as the last one is the correct term but it's just too long to keep repeating, if you have a better term please let me know!
> 
> Edit: Some bad spelling... ;-;


	9. Family Dinner Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long. Some things happened here and these past few days have been just a rush for me. I don't even have the next chapter ready! So it may take a while before it's out I'm not entirely sure.
> 
> Well, Hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> And leave behind comments with theories you think might happen! I would love to read some of those! And the next chapter will be very brought I think, I just have an idea I'm not sure if I'll follow though.

**-Chapter eight-**

**Family Dinner Night**

* * *

The drive was rather quiet and they soon arrived at a fancy restaurant. The Membrane family stopped going to Bloaty's after an incident involving Gaz, some random kids, and cheese…

_A lot of cheese…_

After that Gaz was unofficially-as everyone feared her, banned from there, but she still could order pizza without a problem. Impressively enough, the teen girl wasn't that mad about it as she couldn't stand being inside that pizzeria anymore. She still found it funny to see kids being tormented by the animatronics in there, but it just wasn't enough incentive to convince her to go to such a filthy place again.

So, the family nights started to happen at even fancier restaurants as their dad could convince the owners to let them in-in front of everyone, and make their orders priority. Sometimes the restaurants would literally close the entire place down just for them.

_Yeah…_ Being a famous scientist had its perks as not a single soul would be mad at their dad for doing such.

_He was a great scientist after all._

And he needed everything as fast as possible so he could go back to doing whatever he did to improve everyone's lives!

_Or something..._

Pulling his baby-a black '99 Ford Ranger Dib fixed from the ground up, to the parking lot of the Golden Swan, Dib and Gaz left the old car. It was a chilly and very windy night, but the sky gave a clear vision of the stars.

"Come on, freak" His little sister called out as she started walking to the entrance, a golden archway and white walls with details in gold waited for them.

The chauffeur looked dumbfounded at the strange pair, not believing someone actually dared to come to such a fancy place in that old thing. He was secretly planning on taking a picture and posting it on the internet...

Dib, on the other hand, fondly locked his most recent companion and followed Gaz to the front doors.

After managing to convince the employee at the front that Dib was, indeed, a guest from Membrane-as if his hair cowlick wasn't enough indication, he and Gaz were able to enter the fairly empty restaurant. Just a few couples and small families were inside.

Probably his dad's strings as it was a Sunday night.

Feeling out of place as he was just using plains jeans and a filthy shirt that looked like it should've gone to the washing machine three days ago, Dib looked down while following his little sister that walked as if she owned the place. Striving with the confidence he only wished to have.

A personal waiter greeted them and took the siblings all the way to their reserved table. No surprises there as, like always, Membrane was nowhere to be seen.

Sighing in exasperation Gaz simply sat down, she quickly glanced over the menu and gave her order to the fairly nervous waiter. Dib decided to wait for their father, just asking for some lemon water.

The two of them just sat there without doing anything else for a moment before Gaz decided to talk.

"How's the Zim situation?" She asked while blankly looking at the deserts menu.

Dib looked up, actually surprised.

"Are you always gonna look at me like that whenever I ask you about something or will you answer?" She said looking up and settling the menu down.

Blinking a few times as his mouth was hanging open, Dib finally decided to talk before Gaz changed her mind. "We're searching for a way to bring him back right now. But I haven't found anything and that's starting to get on my nerves" The older brother finally said with the frustration accumulated from the past day showing on his voice and features.

"And you still haven't found anything?" Gaz asked, folding her hands together on her lap, a small frown showing on her features.

"Well, we found some things. But nothing that actually helps… I have Lard Nar following a clue for me though, but I think nothing will come from it" Dib said as frustration filled even more of his voice, he was more interested in looking at his hand's gestures than noticing the way Gaz was behaving.

"And why not?" The younger sibling asked as their waiter came back with Dib's water and Gaz's wine-a perk of being the daughter of a famous scientist is that no one will question her choices with fear of her dad. And he never cared when she tried a few expensive wines here and there in the past, so why not?

"Because it happened so long ago. And we need to find the story of an individual, which is way harder than a generic one" Dib said as he looked at the condensing water drops that formed outside his glass, falling to the white table cloth. He bit his thumbnail before growing conscious of it and dropping his hand as Gaz squinted at him.

"Hmmm" Gaz acknowledged as she lost interest while she fiddled with her wine glass, deep in thought.

The silence took over their table once again as Dib started to hear the few couples and small families around them chatting and laughing together. He felt something deep inside his chest but he wouldn't dare to go too deep on it…

_There are some things some people can only wish to have._

Dib looked at his small smart-watch. If anything happened with Zim while he was away Computer would instantly notify him. So far the alien has avoided the top floors as the grumpy A.I managed to scare him off with some traps for trespassers-some of which Dib was very familiar with...

_But how long will that last?_

And there's a lot of places Cor has no control over with the lack of maintenance and parts the base has suffered over the years… There was only so much Dib could do to patch the place up. And Zim had a very bad lack of equipment and important working parts. Mostly doing what he could with the scraps his Tallests sent over whenever he bugs them for long enough.

**...**

It was only after Gaz's food arrived that their dad showed up,

_late as always._

"Good Evening my little girl" Membrane said while looking at Gaz, she ignored him for a moment as he sat down before subtly pointing with her head in Dib's direction.

"Oh, and Dub" The professor said as he scanned through the menu at the fast rate he normally tends to use in family reunions, or in day-to-day life situations for that matter...

"Hi, dad!" Dib said with a small smile.

Being honest, he would rather be at home doing something productive than being here right now. But he still hoped his dad could see their family as something more than just a bunch of related cells seeing each other to make sure everyone was still alive before going back to their relative business.

The silence kept its reign over the table.

Only interrupted when the waiter arrived to take their orders.

"So, how was your day sweetie?" Gaz's father asked while impatiently waiting for his food.

"Fine" Was the teen short reply. You could see Membrane visibly flinching at that.

"And your day, Dub?" Membrane begrudgingly asked Dib as Gaz seemed to be giving him the cold shoulder again until he talked with his other… Crazier... _Child._

"It was a little bit frustrating as I haven't got too much information on a cold case I'm following" Dib honestly said as his father thought he worked for an investigation company as a part-time job, which wasn't exactly a lie as he kind of worked for Lard Nar as an investigator…

And he did receive money from some true investigations he would help the police with from time to time… Only working because no one knows who he is behind the screen... So he wasn't lying about having a 'real' job either...

"Good" Was his father's short reply.

Dib started to fiddle with his fingers as Gaz was using her cellphone, her plate was already clean and no desert seemed to perk her interest.

Their dad started to use his modified Menbracelet to see some schematics he was working on. Passing his eyes on it Dib could say it was something involving very volatile substances again…

_As always…_

Sighing, Dib started to swipe the edge of his glass. His father's soda finally arrived but it was forgotten as his work seemed more important right now.

The teen looked out of the window as his left leg started to hit the floor in a rhythmic nervous manner, until he felt a strong stinging sensation on it. Remembering that his leg wasn't fully healed yet, he decided to stop.

When their food arrived Membrane reluctantly turned off his bracelet and started eating as fast and as polite as he could. Dib, on the other hand, didn't know very much about manners and etiquette so he tried to do his best while he heard people whispering and laughing.

Suddenly growing very conscious of his current situation, Dib started to feel his arms trembling in nervousness.

Gaz seemed to notice it.

"I think we should go now Dib" She said while putting her cellphone back in her small black and silver purse.

"Why so soon honey? You should stay a little bit longer. Until I finish at least" Membrane said while looking up at his precious little girl.

"No. I'm fine. Let's go Dib" She said while getting up.

Dib looked at his dad who seemed to look intensely at him.

"There's no need to rush Gaz" The boy finally said with a nervous smile.

"I think there is" Gaz retorted, starting to grow tired of her little game and wanting Membrane to stop treating Dib like he is not part of the family anymore. Or like he's a broken project or whatever else Membrane has in his head.

"You should just sit down Gaz. Dub agrees with me" The Professor said. Gaz looked very pissed for a moment.

"Fine. I'm leaving them" She said and then she left the table by herself.

Membrane just looked at her going away with a small open mouth as he could not believe she just left like that. He then sighed and slumped down to eating his food a tad bit slower.

"Don't be sad dad. Gaz will go over it in some time" Dib said with a small nervous smile.

"I'm not sad" Membrane coldly retorted.

"Well. Just, don't beat yourself over because of it then…" Dib quietly replied.

Sighing, Membrane started cutting his meat. "And how's that… Investigation of yours… Have you found the culprit yet?"

Felling a bit down as his father didn't even bother to pay attention to what he said last time, Dib answered. "Eh, no. The case is cold and it's hard to track a single individual that's so far away"

"Far away? I thought you were working with the nearby police?" The Professor asked with a furrowed brow.

"Uh. Oh, well" Dib nervously said as his brain tried to find an appropriate answer.

"Didn't I tell you to stop talking to those lunatics!?" Membrane sternally said as he looked at Dib and hit the table with his metallic right hand. Creating a rather loud sound that got the attention of some customers nearby. Something that didn't help with Dib's growing anxiety.

They already had this fight over in the past and Dib didn't want to have a round two of it-principally around so many strangers...

This ugly fight was the reason Gaz started to avoid their dad and Dib decided to leave the SEN to find Lard Nar and the Resisty, helping them instead.

"It's not with _them!_ " Dib spat out and covered his mouth. He couldn't avoid it, principally after finding out about their working ethics... _And the vivisection incident…_ The SEN was pretty much dismantled after that…

_His dad made sure of it._

"Then, it's with who?" Feeling nauseous Dib almost didn't catch his father's question.

Knowing that Membrane would investigate later there was no way Dib would be able to lie now. But if he tried to tell the truth his dad would deny it… But not telling the truth might be worse as his dad would just start sniffing around and it's not a good time for him to do so... Feeling cornered Dib finally decided to open his mouth.

"It's with alie-"

A lot of plates fell at once to the floor in the background.

Membrane looked at Dib with a blank expression. He sighed, put his hands in his face while shaking his head 'no'.

Dib stared at him with a sad expression. The restaurant was a total silence now and the anxious teen started to wish the whispering was back. Feeling more nervous than ever Dib just got up and decided to leave with his head cast downwards and shaky hands; not daring to look at anyone else.

Gaz was waiting by the side of his truck while looking at her cellphone. Without a word both of them entered and he quietly drove back home. His sister didn't need to ask what had happened as his face was enough for her.

**...**

Dib was feeling really tired when they were back at home.

The moon was very high up in the sky now.

Computer hasn't reported anything, nor has Lard Nar contacted him. But it did not impede the teen from staying in front of his computer while intently waiting for something, anything, from his alien mentor or the sadistic machine. Any type of update, be it bad or good, would be better than his constant anxious state. He could even feel his hair wanting to fall from his head from nervousness alone...

Dib started to think on Gaz as his eyes tiredly looked at his never-changing computer screen. His little sister has gone such a long way from her doomer days… She is way more mature now and she is learning a lot about being more forgiving in her own Gaz way, but she still has a long way to go before forgiving their dad…

Dib sighed as he scratched his tired eyes; glasses going slightly upwards with the movement.

She probably just went to family nights to see their dad squirm but, as she is getting tired of it by the look of things, she will tire soon and family nights will probably end… Something Dib wants to avoid if possible as he still wishes to see this family united, even if just a tiny bit so...

Tiredly scratching his eyes again-as they could barely stay open after so long without any proper sleep. His body has been working solely on adrenaline these past few days... Dib couldn't hold much longer when his head finally hit his keyboard with a loud bang and he was soon after asleep. Snoring echoed through the room.

His bedroom door slightly opened as a small portion of light invaded the bedroom from the hallway. The teen was too busy sleeping to notice it, though.

**...**

Dib was suddenly awakened with an enormous headache on, he just felt like his head wanted to implode!

Searching for his glasses-as Dib was laid on his bed, he managed to find and put them on before he looked at his beeping computer. The reason he was so suddenly awakened.

Angrily looking at the machine and wishing for the noise to go away, as his head wouldn't stop throbbing, Dib finally got up and turned the thing on to see what was going on.

With a startled yelp, and almost falling to the floor when his knees gave up on him as he was not using his chair, Dib managed to hold his weight on his desk when all the things he has seen the past few days came crashing down on him. In his screen he could see that an incoming transmission from the Resisty's Captain was what caused his computer to wake up the tired and grumpy teen.

Feeling a little embarrassed still about the little breakdown he had in front of the Vortian, Dib finally calmed down enough-with the help of some aspirin, to accept the call and talk like the civilized young adult he was.

"Greetings Dib" Lard Nar said with his ever-optimistic voice.

"Good Morning Lard Nar" The teen replied with a tired tone as it was very early in the morning, the sun wasn't even out yet…

"Oh, it's not even morning in there. I hope I'm not calling in a bad time?" The Captain replied.

"No no, it's fine" The teen said while rubbing his eyes and blaming his sluggish brain for not being able to work longer without proper sleep. "Did you find anything?" Dib then asked as he grew excited and his brain started to pick the pace up.

"Yes, it took me some time to find anything in the database as it was so long ago and I still have my Captain duties to perform. But I managed to find some files that may help you... Apparently the Waja that was used on the experiment survived and was rescued by the resistance. She told us her story" Dib looked expectantly at Lard Nar, he looked like a little kid that was about to receive candies when he shouldn't. "BUT. The files were corrupted over time as the technology advanced and changed over the years and now most of it is encrypted or unreadable…" The Vortian looked away at that. "I tried to find something better, but nothing was available on my side. If you want to see it for yourself feel free… I'm not going to hold it against you as you can do a better job than myself"

Dib felt some of his excitement disappearing as it would be very hard to find what was on those files, but not wanting to give up just yet he was decided. "Just sent them my way and I'll see what I can do. And don't worry. I believe you did your best and I'm probably not finding anything else" The human said with a small friendly smile.

The Vortian seemed relieved at that, Dib felt bad for doing that to the Resisty's Captain but he had to hold his ground sometimes with him and this was a consequence of it. "Okay. Sending them now"

After hastily thanking the smaller being, Dib opened his computer and started working on the files he received.

**...**

It was very late now, stupidly late… Dib spent the entire day trying to crack the broken files to no avail. Sighing in frustration the investigator took his third aspirin. He knew it was bad to take so many meds and _blah blah blah_ , but he needed to stay focused and his head wasn't collaborating right now.

And it didn't help when a freaking corruption started deleting the files when Dib's head wasn't paying much attention due to the ever so present pain. Luckily he managed to find and delete whatever was causing it before losing too much of the ancient files. His personal system helped as well as it managed to indicate to the teen that something was wrong before it was too late.

Feeling sluggish and scratching his tired eyes the teen kept staring at the bright blue screen of his computer, waiting for an answer on how to crack those files and read what's still available after so long…

Banging his head on his desk as nothing seemed to come to mind, Dib just decided to let another one of his programs go through the files and decided to go to the garage to see if Cor or Tak found anything new…

**...**

Upon opening the door he noticed the place seemed very quiet-as every time he came here in the past the machines seemed to always be arguing about something.

"Hey. Did you guys find anything?" Dib asked the ship that seemed to still be looking through the data.

"Nothing" Tak's ship replied in anger. "There's nothing here! A lot of those files have nothing to do with what we want and the Waja file was the only one that actually registered an Irken-Subject being friendly towards other beings. There are just citations of this happening with other experiments but they were discarded as the Irken-Subjects weren't primal examples"

"What do you mean by 'primal example'" The investigator asked while going closer and seeing the ship's screen.

"Their PAK's were later found to be broken from the start. Something wrong with the internal workings that would make them react in strange ways to different situations. The Subjects were terminated and every research done on them was deleted" Computer replied in a clearly frustrated voice.

"That's... Strange" Dib replied while reading the files Tak's ship was showing to him.

"How can it be that so many of those subjects were wrong!?" Tak's A.I said in frustration and anger-not daring to say what that would mean.

A silence started to stretch in the room.

"Hey" Dib finally said after the silence got the better of him. "I found some corrupted files that may help us, but it'll take a while if it's just me trying to find something in them… If you're in a dead-end here you may as well give them a look and see if you can crack something?" The teen asked with expectancy on his voice, if the Irken tech decides to help him he might find something very interesting way faster.

"Fine. Bring them over" Tak's A.I answered, from her mechanical voice it was clear she believed nothing that didn't come from Irken making was worth their time.

But it's not like she has anything better to do either...

**...**

It's been over an hour now.

Dib had a better grip on the vortian language than the A.I's, so he was the one translating whatever Cor and Tak's ship managed to get from the scraps. But even though the translation process was slow the machines were not complaining as they were having bad luck with the old files.

The investigator was starting to feel restless... Even though they had deciphered a big portion of what they managed to find nothing made sense. Without a complete sentence, it was hard to understand the files as much of it were only small words or phrases here and there.

It was even harder as this story was translated from whatever language the Wajas used to Vortian, which ended up creating crazy phrases that, more often than not, made no sense whatsoever. It was as if the machine that used to translate it bugged or something. Some things just don't make sense at all!

Dib sighed in frustration as it seemed they would be, again, at another dead end.

"Hey. This portion here seems promising" Computer said for the third time.

The first one he found a big phrase that most likely just explained what they knew and some details, stating that the Non-Irken-Subject was a female Waja with a small height of 4.2 foot-well, small for humans. The second time it was a big text that seemed impressive enough until Dib started to translate and it turned out to be just gibberish.

The teen contained his internal frustration. "Send it to me then"

Upon receiving the files Dib started translating. But no matter how much he tried it just looked like gibberish again! He can't understand how or why but it seems like the one who wrote it didn't even know Vortian!

"Well, do you have anything? I think this is everything I can decipher. The rest is utter bullshit" Computer said with a bad taste on his mechanical mouth for using so many human terms these past few days.

"I... Don't know?" The investigator replied with uncertainty. He's just confused. Some parts he can read but others seem like another language entirely… Maybe they forgot to translate it from the Waja language?

"How you don't know? Your only job was only to translate it!" Tak's ship retorted.

"You talk like that with me but an Irken machine can't even translate Vortian?!" Dib replied, letting his frustration and tiredness get the better of him for a moment.

"That's not Vortian!" Tak's voice angrily retorted.

"If it's not Vortian, then what is it?!" Dib angrily asked while looking up from his tablet screen that was connected to the spaceship.

"I don't know. You're the translator!" The ship said with more anger, moving its mechanical parts around a little bit.

"Can you both calm down!?" Sensing a fight and not wanting to deal with it Computer said it in a loud commanding voice. "If it's not Vortian Dib could simply call the Vortian back and ask him to translate. He must have this dead language on his archives"

Feeling like that was the best option, Dib left the room to send a message to Lard Nar.


	10. Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I think I'll try to post a new chapter every Friday. If it's not up until Friday I'll try to have it out before the weekend ends. At least I'll try but my classes will come back this week (online) and this decision might change depending on my workload. But I want to try and have a fixed date so you guys can know when it'll be out or something...
> 
> And this chapter was really dark and even I had some difficulty trying to see what my limits were whilst writing some parts of it and deciding which parts to remove. 
> 
> As always, be warned and be safe people!
> 
> And thank you, FaboKraken, for being so supportive of my fic! It really helps to get me going and I really appreciate it!

**-Chapter nine-**

**Consequences**

* * *

"Can you remove this smile from your features?" A female voice irritably asked as a tapping foot on the floor could be heard.

"No" Lard Nar amusedly replied without looking back as he was tidying up some important files.

"I hate you" She said after a moment of a silenced, one-sided, staring match.

" _Ohh_. Love you too" The captain simply retorted while turning his head to see with the corner of his eyes the dark reflection on his blank screens of his best advisor; still being mesmerized by her deep blue eyes.

"I know you're impressed" Nar said with a slightly serious tone, resuming their conversation.

"I'm not That impressed" She quietly replied while looking at her small dark-brown hand, examining her black claws in a very faked display of disinterest.

"But you're not denying you are either" The Captain said with a sly smile as her hand was, once again, covered by her dark purple robe.

"Well! A lot of people could do That" She said with growing frustration while turning back to look at him through the reflection.

"No, they could not... Only he can make Irken machinery work with him in such ways. And he definitely passed your little test without a problem. You should stop worrying so much" Lard Nar replied, growing even more amused with their conversation.

"I would stop worrying if that Irken was dead. He's too much of a loose cannon for any of us to control" She seriously replied.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. I know their story and, principally, I know Zim" The robed female form looked at him without a hint of belief on his words. "Look. Dib is too important for us. If he was in real danger I would do everything I can to stop him. But he is not. Believe me" The captain turned to look at her with his lime-green goggles.

"You can be so infuriating sometimes!" His advisor threw her arms to the air in a frustrated movement. Without further ado, she simply left the room with very agile movements, she looked like a dark-purplish shadow passing through the dark blue walls.

Lard Nar looked back at his black screen, rethinking about the last call he had with the human. A small frown showed in his features as he wished Dib would play this smartly, not letting his emotions get the better of him.

_And fearing Ixane's concerns…_

**...**

"This is dead Vortian" The captain excitedly said behind the screen.

"What?" Dib asked while the Irken machines listened without the Captain's knowledge.

"This language. It's the Vortian that was used before they changed it so more races could easily speak and understand it… It's been so long I haven't seen it!" Lard Nar said while his eyes sparkled, moving back and forth in the ancient text.

"Can you translate it?" Dib asked with growing excitement and feeling relieved that it wasn't his fault for not understanding it.

"Yes, yes. Give me a moment" Lard Nar replied as he used a small pen to write some words and phrases down.

"Okay. I think I got it" The Captain said as he looked up after what looked to be an eternity to the teen.

"Some parts are unreadable and I can't figure out what they meant previously. I've done my best but I'll need to guess here…" The small figure said while looking down at what he wrote.

"Even that is better than what I have on this end" Dib said while getting a tablet from a nearby desk and preparing to write in English whatever the Captain has managed to decipher. His tablet was directly connected to Tak's ship, so it'll instantly pass everything he writes to them to be further analyzed.

"Okay... if you say so" Lard Nar said, looking one more time at the teen before talking about what he has discovered.

"From what I have here it seems a female Waja was thrown into a bubble with a moulted Irken. She most likely described her experience and how she felt but I only have bits and pieces of it. I can guess, from what I understand, she wasn't afraid as she thought death was better than whatever they were doing to her species and herself previously…" Lard Nar seemed very disturbed at that as a frown appeared in his face.

When he noticed Dib was looking at him the Captain continued. "Eh- The next part says how the Irken she was locked with reacted to her. Here she states that it was, for a lack of a better word, strange. Sometimes the feral Irken, as she called them, would act towards her with care and caution. As if he was afraid to hurt her. Other times he would simply attack her for no apparent reason. She described it as if the feral had some form of double-personality issue…" The Captain stopped at that as if he was thinking about something.

"Did she say what can help to calm them down… Like, to make them not attack someone?" Dib asked after he managed to write down what Lard Nar told him so far.

"Ah. Let me see. I think... Here?" The Vortian said to himself as he looked at his desk. "She states that there's not much on controlling them, they're wild cards on their own. But he would be less aggressive when he was well fed, whenever he spent prolonged times with her, and after she gave a piece of cloth with her smell on it the frequency of the aggressive attacks lessened. But she insisted that this feral was one of a kind and she does not recommend trying to interact with any of them… That's about… Everything I have here..." Lard Nar looked up at the young human with an expression Dib knew very well.

"I know what you want to say. But you know as well that I'll not leave him behind. I am not turning into a monster…" Dib said without looking up, flashbacks of other versions of himself showing on his mind in a flash. "Thanks. And sorry for taking so much of your time… I'll call you back" The teen suddenly said and closed the transmission.

_He doesn't want to open that can of worms yet…_

"Well. What do you think?" Dib asked while turning his wheelchair around to look at the Ship's console.

"From what we have here I can say for sure that this planet is doomed" Computer's voice replied. "There's no way you're managing to get Zim, of all Irkens, to not attack you"

"I don't believe I'm saying it but I agree with Cor. You should just fix the explosives so we can deal with it before it's too late" Tak's ship added. "It'll be dangerous. But if he hasn't escaped yet you may be able to do it and come back alive to your human family-unity in one piece"

Dib looked down as his mind raced. He doesn't want to leave Zim to die like this... Like some form of a beast that has no control over himself...

That's not how it was supposed to end…

That's not how He wants it to end...

"I'll think about it…" The teen finally said after a long time in silence. He then got up, turned off the lights, and left the garage.

"At least he's not denying it anymore…" Tak's voice echoed in the darkroom. Computer just hummed in a mechanical agreement, focused on something else.

**...**

_Bright Red Lights flashing._

_Steps echoing in dark hallways._

_A Scream._

_A blood-curdling scream._

_Blood._

_Everything smells like blood._

_Dib feels nauseous… He drunkenly tried to walk through the hallways, hitting opposing light-green walls from time to time._

_His head was spinning._

_The walls were dirty and the lights on the ceiling flickered in their last breaths. Dib walked but he didn't know where to…_

_He just kept walking._

_..._

_At the end of the hallway, he saw it._

_Hidden by the menacing shadows a small girl with messy brown hair and sickly white skin smiled. Her smile was like a ray of sunshine, and it even managed to brighten the terrifying-looking walls. Her pinkish eyes followed his movements and, for a single blessed moment, Dib felt himself floating in comfort._

_Then he started falling…_

_Dib felt a huge weight hanging on his shoulders. Next thing he knew he was holding a scalpel and someone was pushing him forward. They were saying something but everything the teen could hear was tinnitus; a high-pitched sound that seemed to take over every other noise._

_They pushed him through a double-door._

_There, in a shiny silver Operating Table laid a small girl with messy brown hair. Her pinkish eyes frantically looked around in the room before they looked at him. Her mouth opened, two big fangs showed past her lips, an inaudible scream appeared on her features._

_Dib felt sick._

_Someone had given him a scalpel and pushed him forward. The girl breathed harshly as her thorax frantically moved up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and Down. The teen noticed she was bare naked. Feeling more nauseous as his head throbbed the young boy tried to look away in shame. He was forced to go forward again as invisible chains seemed to hold his legs in place. Desperate to, at least, look somewhere else other than the disturbing scene Dib looked down._

_His hands were red._

_Dib screamed._

_He looked up again and the girl was dead. Her glassy pinkish eyes looked at him without any expression. Her lips contorted in a never-ending scream of agony._

_Her chest,_

_open._

_Blood flooded the room. No saline, no painkillers, no meds, and no real doctors. It was disturbing, horrifying, and it was_ _**wrong** _ _. The teen felt his legs giving up under him as he fell to the floor._

_This was a_

_**vivisection.** _

_A barbaric act with no real purpose done by_ _**maniacs** _ _. By_ _**monsters** _ _that used human skin and dared to call themselves sentient beings._

_A_ _**maniac**_ _laugh echoed in the room._

_Dib looked around searching for its owner, questioning who would be so_ _**insane** _ _, so_ _**inhumane** _ _, to dare LAUGH at this tragic scene. But he found none as;_

_The laugh was his own._

_Feeling nauseous, Dib got up and tried to run. His voice_ _**mocking** _ _him, calling him to come back and face who he_ _**truly** _ _was, who he_ _**always** _ _ended up being._

_While running down the hallway the young boy saw disturbing versions of himself surrounding his path. Some were bloody, others were dead._

_He ran faster._

_He didn't want to see_ _**that** _ _, he knew what was coming next…_

_He wanted to leave._

_Dib stumbled and retched on the floor, he wanted to puke but nothing ever came out._

_He_ _**heard** _ _it first._

_A laugh that was his, but at the same time,_

_**wasn't.** _

_Footsteps echoed inching closer towards him, the teen had no more force to move, he felt drained, his vision was foggy and his world was spinning._

_A cold hand held his chin. The world stopped to spin. Without much force, it lifted his head._

_Then he saw Him._

_He saw it._

_With broken glasses, yellowish eyes, and protruding veins on its head, Zib looked at him with a maniacal smile. The smile of a monster that contorted his features giving him an inhumane appearance. His zipper-like teeth showing behind in a silent threat._

" _Afraid?" Zib asked as his head tilted. Blood started to drip from the walls._

_Dib tried to push his face away to no avail, Zib's hold was too strong._

" _I was too. But I knew what had to be done" It said with a smile._

_Dib tried to contain his frantic breathing but nothing seemed to work and his lungs just felt more exhausted as if they wanted to give up. Zib got up from its squatting position and looked down at Dib with its cold eyes. The teen's head refused to move as if locked in place by some strange spell._

" _You should just do it. You know. It'll be easier that way" Zib's smile grew to an inhuman size as his zipper-like-teeth showed in all their horrendous glory from behind. "You could be the hero!" He whispered in his venomous-sweet voice._

_He squatted once again and came closer._

_Without warning, Zib held Dib's head by his lower jaw, putting its own, bigger, head at the teen's side as if it was waiting for a picture to be taken by some invisible spectator. "Me and you. Heroes of the multiverse" His hand moved from left to right as if he was trying to encompass all realities in that single gesture._

" _What do you say? Partners?" Zib asked as he held his hand out, waiting for a shake._

_The blood coming from the wall started to flood the floor and the ceiling started to drip._

" _Never" Dib spatted out as his arms gave up on him and he fell face-first to the floor._

_Zib's sweet smile turned into a huge threatening frown. His eyes glinted with a maniacal light as the PAK on his head started to hum with life. The room was flooded in red lighting. Dib couldn't say anymore red from blood._

" _Then deal with the_ _ **consequences**_ _" Zib spat out before getting up and walking away. His steps echoing changed from concrete to metal._

_Dib's head started to spin again and he found himself in a very dark and scary room. He couldn't see anything more than a few feet in front of him._

_The floor was a dark pinkish._

_He tried to move but his hand was locked in place and his body didn't seem to like the idea of moving right now. Then, he heard it._

_Click. Click. Click._

_The teen looked around in fear._

_Click. Click. Click._

_His heart started to pound in his chest._

_CLICK. CLICK. CLICK._

_The room started to spin._

_CLICK. THUMP._

_A green beast flew at his neck with no remorse. Dib felt the blood coming out as his body started to rapidly feel cold. Without waiting, the creature started to tear his insides apart and Dib felt his organs moving around as a soundless scream appeared on his features._

_Then, the teen could see it, he was lifting up as the creature gorged itself on his dead body. His caramel eyes looked at nothing as they turned glassy._

_Dib looks to his side and sees the same creature now searching when it's food started to go low._

_Dib saw the creature walking, learning, and_ _**Improving** _ _._

_**He saw it;** _ _as it killed everyone he loved. One by one._

_First Gaz. Who came looking for him and entered the confines of the alien base._

_Then, a small child was its next victim when it finally managed to break through Computer's grasp. Ravaging in the little body and then, as it turned around to hunt for more when its hunger was not satisfied._

_Afterwards, Dib saw his dad. He was devastated after his children disappeared and he sat down on the couch to wait for them to return. The old men never believed an alien-like creature had invaded his house, and when it killed him everything he believed was that it was just a big hallucination and he would wake back to see his kids waiting for him with open arms._

_After that, the city was its target. With Membrane out of the way, no one could stop it. Computer and Tak's ship tried but it was too smart for them. The beast had learned how to use Its PAK. The city had no chance._

_Dib saw as the beast killed and killed, over and over again, with no end. It screamed. It tore. And it ate. No one was safe. No one would survive._

_..._

_**And Dib,** _

_He was impotent._

_He was impotent to it all because_

_he was_ _**WEAK.** _

**...**

Dib woke up the next morning to a soundless scream and tossed bedsheets. He sat down in a fetal position as he tried to calm his beating heart. It wasn't long before droplets of tears started to appear in his bedsheets as the teen tried to calm down.

After a long time had passed and the anxious teen managed to control his breathing he heard a knock on his door. "Hey, dork! When will you be ready? We have classes today!" Gaz screamed.

"Sorry! Woke up late. 'Be ready in a few!" Dib screamed back trying to hide the strange tone his voice had after crying so long.

He heard Gaz walking downstairs and only after he was sure she had left Dib got up and started putting some clean clothes on. He had stayed awake a long time yesterday pondering Computer's offer and he was still not sure.

Deciding that he should let the proposal away from his mind for the time being. Even more so considering the nightmare he just had. Dib opened the door feeling a small concentrated pain in his head again. He stopped for a few seconds and waited for it to go away.

Deciding against taking aspirin as he had had many of those yesterday, the young teen decided to ignore the pain and take Gaz to school before she started to get pissed at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, who was expecting that Lard Nar's advisor was Ixane? I want you guys to say who knew it and who was expecting someone else, who you thought it was? I'll be glad to hear :D
> 
> I really hope there are no potholes on this chapter as I found some while revising it, if you find anything that might be contradicting please let me know as the longer the fic the harder for me to keep track of every little sentence and detail.
> 
> Edit: Bold has double spacing and I think it's a problem with the italic, I tried to fix it but it just added the additional spacing again. If someone knows how to fix it I'm all ears.


	11. Choise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O-kay. So. This chapter is a rollercoaster. And it's going to be an INTENSE one. >:3
> 
> I know I told you guys the chapter would be out Friday but I had some difficulty with writer's block and I wasn't able to write for two days before I could keep going as I wasn't too sure on doing os many changes of perspective through it. If next week it happens again I might change from Friday to Saturday so I will at least have the morning to patch things up.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy and see you next week for the next update! Muahahahahhaha.

**-Chapter ten-**

**Choice**

* * *

" _Ib. Earth to Dib_ " A hand waved in front of his face.

"Ah- Gaz..? What…?" The teen asked as his mind refocused on his sister. No matter what his mind kept going back to his nightmare and he couldn't focus on anything else for long before spacing out again.

"Ugh. Forget it. We're going home" Gaz said as she pulled his arm, prompting Dib to get up from his seat on the cafeteria lunch table.

"But our classes aren't done yet" The teen complained, not entirely focusing on his situation still.

"Yeah. But you've broken Torque's nose and I'm not waiting to save your ass from him at the end of the day as I'm not in the walking mood today. And you're acting weird. Spacing out and shit" She explained while Dib groggily followed her outside the canteen. But something on her sentence did catch his attention for a moment, making him briefly forget the Zim problem.

"Wait" He said as he stopped, making Gaz look back at him. "I did what!?" The teen exclaimed dumbfounded.

_He doesn't remember that._

"Yeah. Torque came at you before classes and you literally punched his face, you've been the skool hot topic all morning. Your hand is still bloody by the way, I wish I was there to see" She said with a small evil smirk, but upon seeing the face her brother was making Gaz changed her body language to a concerned one very quickly. "What happened?" She asked while attentive looking at her older brother.

Dib looked at the back of his right hand and, as Gaz just said, some blood tainted his knuckles. His heart suddenly stopped as his skin lost all colour. He started shaking before he fell to the floor retching.

Images of crazy versions of himself taking control of his mind.

"Dib?" Gaz asked, growing even more agitated. She looked around, the hallway was empty and she doubted someone would disturb Dib with her by his side, but she can't shake off the feeling of guilt.

Her brother just kept shaking on the dirty floor, even after he was done retching. The teen was shaking like a leaf and he started to sob as tears fell on top of his long-lost lunch. The smell was awful and the small girl had no idea what to do, she was a gamer… A doomer… And a DPS player, not some kind of support class!

Nervously glancing around once more without being certain of what to do Gaz finally approached her older brother, she touched his shoulder in a very careful manner as if afraid to break him with a single touch.

"Dib, let's go home now okay?" He didn't move and his sobbing kept ongoing. "If you can hear me please nod for me. Can you nod for me, Dib?" She asked while crouching by his side. He kept shaking and when Gaz was giving up he nodded his head once. At least her 'please' was not wasted...

"Okay, I'm gonna hold you by your arm and get you to your car. If you feel like puking stop and I'll wait. Okay? Can you do that?" She slowly asked. Dib nodded once more and she, after some effort, finally managed to help her older brother to his feet.

Without bothering to tell anyone Gaz walked through the hallways, making some brief stops when Dib wasn't feeling well enough to keep walking. When the bell rang warning everyone that lunch was over Gaz was walking out the front doors of the High Skool.

Dib couldn't hold anymore and he ended up puking once more in the parking lot before Gaz helped him to the passenger seat and opened his window wide. She then hopped on and drove as slow as possible all the way back to their house while Dib kept his eyes closed the entire ride; complaining of a growing headache.

During that time she was simply cursing herself for being so stupid.

**...**

The sixteen-year-old teen felt like his head was going to implode while his body was sweating non-stop. All the while he felt so cold it was like that time when Zim managed to dump him on water and leave him on top of a freezing mountain for two hours straight, with only his boxers on before Gaz convinced the green-space-lizard to go get him back or consequences would ensue.

Dib stayed in bed for a solid four days before he finally got better. Zim didn't dare to pull another one like that for a long, looong time.

The teen now looked around with squinted eyes. His bedroom was dark but some light was coming from his closed window. It was still day. He couldn't understand how his mind could think so clearly now, aside from the throbbing, when his body felt like dying.

His door opened ever so slightly and Gaz invited herself in, she was holding some stuff on her arms but Dib couldn't see what without his glasses.

"Hey. How are you doing?" She asked while sitting down on his bed by his side. She had an apologetic face on.

"Better" Dib said with a hoarse voice. It was a lie.

"Here. I got you some hot milk and some dad drugs" She said as she gave him the hot glass and a few colourful pills.

Not waiting Dib gulped everything down with hopes of getting better as soon as possible. With Zim in that state, he needs to be ready at all times. Gaz got up and walked to the door.

"I warned the skool of what happened. You should be on the clear for a day or two. Try getting some sleep, I'll be by-" She was interrupted when Dib's menbracelet started going off. Gaz tried to walk over and get it but Dib was faster as it was on his nightstand.

"It's Zim. He's closing in on the top floors again" Dib said after reading the message. Over the past three hours, Cor has been warning him about Zim getting too close to the surface for his liking. This is the third time he does it.

"Yeah. But you're in no condition to go after him like this. You need to sleep!" Gaz said as she got the equipment from Dib's hand.

"But he's trying to get out! What are we going to do if he escapes huh!?" Dib retorts.

"He's just exploring, or something! You can leave him there for some hours, he's not gonna escape" Gaz says with a stern expression.

"If he was just exploring we wouldn't be warned so many times in a row. It's been less than three hours since the first time!" Dib replied. His voice still hoarse and his head still hurting. But he couldn't let that happen he couldn-

Dib started to retch again, Gaz gave him a trashcan and his pills were wasted.

"And that's why you're not going. I'm staying with this thing" Gaz showed him the bracelet. "Until you get better. And if you try to sneak out I'm going to make you forcefully sleep!" She threatened him before closing his door with a heavy thud. She was not joking.

Dib could only look up as his eyes started leaking again in pain. He just doesn't know what is happening to him! Cursing his own luck Dib just plumbed down again on his bed as his head started spinning once more.

**...**

Some hours, and a nap, later Dib was feeling way better. It was as if he was a new person altogether! He doesn't know what his dad has been putting on his new medicine but it sure is working!

Feeling way more disposed now and knowing Gaz is probably as-sleep; she still has classes tomorrow and it's rather late. The teen changed his dirty shirt, got his trench coat on and opened his bedroom door with the utmost caution he could muster.

Upon seeing that Gaz lights were off and that no sound could be heard from her room Dib walked on the tip of his toes towards the stairs. Only when he was out of his house did the teen ease his breathing and normally walked to the garage, wanting to know everything he could with his sister out of the way.

The garage lights were off but the Irken machines were still working non-stop. They noticed Dib as soon as he opened the door.

"Dib...? What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?" Tak's voice asked from the ship's console.

"Gaz confiscated my bracelet. What has Zim done while I was away?" Dib asked without elaborating too much on his answer.

"Well" Cor said after a few seconds. "He has approached the upper levels twelve times now and I think he may have found a breach as I can't find him on my scanners. He's still inside but he is closing in on the top floors. I would say he's somewhere on Sub-Level 3 to Sub-Level 4" The machine said somewhat concerned.

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Tak's ship asked as Dib gathered some alien-like gadgets that were laying around.

The investigator stopped and looked directly at the ship. "Yes. Yes I have"

**...**

Dib eased his breathing as he looked at the hole he made some days ago in the dirt. It was crazy to think how fast his world and everything he knew had turned upside-down in a matter of days when everything had been so... Constant... Prior to it…

The teen breathed the outside air one last time not knowing if he will manage to survive this encounter. Looking at his left leg and being impressed once more on how fast it recovered after he took some of his dad's pills. It was as if nothing had ever happened!

Dib forced his left leg on the ground once more to make sure he felt no pain whatsoever.

"Are you sure about this?" Cor's voice came from a small earphone he had on his ear. Dib had to improvise now that Gaz had his bracelet and this small goggle that was from his dad was the best thing he had laying around. He still has to talk back out loud to Cor but it still is better than nothing.

"Yes" Dib simply replied as he looked up to the dark sky and the constellations. At least it's a good day to die...

Cor made an affirmative sound and the small hatch to enter his nemesis base opened once more. The teen searched around in the duffle bag he had until he got a mask on his hands. The investigator wants to be sure he's not getting sick again because of Zim's failed experiments or gases or diseases or whatever…

Feeling one last time the cold breeze of the night brushing his face Dib finally put the mask on. Before his resolve decided to leave his body the young boy finally decided to enter the alien base.

The hatch closed behind him and Dib could feel his confidence going down at an ever-increasing-pace as his resolve dissolved into nothingness. He might die in here and he knows it. Sighing and straightening his back-remembering the way Gaz walked into that restaurant, Dib walked towards the elevator hidden under the trash-can with fake confidence around him to try and keep himself from giving up.

Following Cor's instructions, he would go down through there as it was the farthest place from Zim's last known location and where Computer had the biggest control on the base. All the other elevators would go down at the same time to confuse his nemesis as to what was happening. If they're lucky the green lizard will appear in a camera feed and they'll know for sure where he was.

**...**

_He could feel it._

_The walls were moving._

_Something was happening…_

_This is different. This is new. When the walls move they try to catch him. But they only move near him. This time. This time they're moving in various places at once._

_Looking once more to the limp limb by his side he wished it would just go away so he could move better, but nothing happened. The screamy one has been quiet for a long time now, and this strange limb kept following him around. He tried biting and scratching it but he felt a small, strange sensation... It wasn't painful... Pain was different. But he didn't like it._

_Looking around once more when the sounds stopped he started moving with caution. He used his feelers to be sure he would know if something new had appeared. He can't find the one that escaped, even if he tried his hardest he just couldn't. And every time he tried to get closer to wherever the one who escaped went to escape the walls would attack him._

_And the walls were getting better at trying to get him, even more so after they almost grabbed him by the limp limb. He angrily hissed at the broken thing with the memory._

_Looking around once more he kept going. He was thinking of going back but something new had happened and he wanted to know what. Maybe he will find the one that escaped._

**...**

"I have a bad feeling about this" A female mechanical-like voice spoke into the darkness.

"I would bet my core I would never see you using such words" A male voice, with the same mechanical ringing, spoke back.

"It's all this human tech going all over my systems! You should know very well how this is affecting us Cor!" Tak's A.I angrily replied.

"I know" Computer's voice answered. "I'm trying my best to keep a lookout on every camera feed"

"Then do it better! Something wrong is going to happen. If Dib and Zim are involved I'm sure of it" Tak said in an angry commanding voice.

"What? Are you serious?! I'm doing my best here while needing to share processors with you and you say this to me?! You should be more helpful and delete some of those extra terabytes you have in there!" Cor angrily retorted.

"What. Did you. Just **said?!** " Tak's voice came right back at him. " **I dare you to repeat that, junk!** "

"Oh, my terabyte do you want to fight NOW of all times?!" Computer replied.

"Listen here you litt-"

Both of them were interrupted by an alarm like sound before one of their usual fights started again.

**...**

The teen kept his stride in the underground belly of the monstrous ant-like alien base of his nemesis. He walked carefully while tentatively paying attention to his surroundings.

Although the base isn't as cold and as scary as the most inner floors he still feels like the shadows lurking around in the hallways and dark corners are waiting for one slip-up before attacking him.

This time Dib can clearly see as the base lights were turned on, and he knows Cor is keeping an eye out for him. But that wasn't enough to end his paranoia and his fear. It's hard to listen for any sounds that Zim might make while his talons hit the cold hard floor as a lot of alien-like machines hum with newfound life for the first time in more than two weeks.

The investigator stops at an intersection and, after receiving instructions from Cor, he keeps going towards the right path. Even though the walls are clean and not one single scratch can be seen, the teen still feels like one wrong corner will lead him to certain death.

Patting his duffle bag once more as a form of self-assurance the young investigator kept his stride while trying to keep his mind in check so as to not let himself wander away from the situation at hand.

While the last time this base seemed to be something that came right out of an alien movie where everyone would die in the end, this time it seems like it is just Zim's normal base. The colours, the smells, and even the sounds are the same as he is used to.

It just seems like everything went back to normal and he is back at his normal break-ins into Zim's base to steal some tech or to simply bug him. And that's the problem. He can't let himself lower his guard just because everything seems normal… He needs to keep himself at the tip of his toes and believe that if he is caught he is dead for sure. Dib needs to remind himself to act almost like when he was a kid when Zim first arrived, that a single misstep might bring him his death and with him, the world as well.

And so, he kept going.

But, as always, not so long after he heard a loud noise from the hallways not so far away from him. It sounded as if one of Cor's traps was activated.

"I see him" Soon after Computer's voice alerted the teen.

"Can you lock him in place?" Dib carefully asked as to not make much sound before he started to walk faster, he's not far now. Just a little more and he'll arrive at the room to fix things up.

Then the base can self-destroy.

A loud bang echoed in the hallways and an alien screech followed soon after.

"No. He just escaped" Computer's voice replied.

Cursing the damn machine for not being able to simply contain Zim for a few more minutes Dib started to run. It would be idiotic of him to run and alert Zim of his location. But he ran anyway. Not because he was stupid, but because he heard Zim running towards him.

The alien might not have known Dib was there, but there was no way for him to know. And so, the teen decided to not risk it.

"Seal the doors behind me and try holding him. I'm almost there!" The teen loudly said as now there's no point in trying to be sneaky.

Rather than replying, the house A.I started to close everything up and Dib listened to the heavy metal doors closing behind him as he ran.

Finally reaching his objective Dib opened his bag to retrieve and connected an old notebook to the interface of the Irken Machinery in the room. He nervously glanced towards the gigantic bombs that covered the entire place as his old buddy in hacking Zim's base hummed to life.

Zim's screeches were every time louder and louder. He was getting closer.

"What's happening? He's coming too fast!" Dib asked as he, for the first time, cursed human tech for being so slow.

"He managed to go through some doors before they closed. Then, somehow, he managed to fit in the vents. I tried locking them as well but it seems he's starting to receive a feed from the base's schematics through his PAK, he knows every path and what paths aren't blocked" Computer replied in a stressed voice.

"Shit" Was everything Dib could say in the situation. That's why they warned Zim would be too dangerous to contain when he learns to use his PAK to his advantage…

Dib walked towards his notebook as it finally initiated, he started by trying to find where the problem was and why the base couldn't explode. The sounds of Zim trying to avoid Cor and Cor trying to immobilize Zim could be heard even through the thick door that sealed the teen inside.

The young boy started typing in his notebook as fast as his fingers would allow him without typing it wrong. Upon learning the problem Dib opened the duffle bag and retrieved some tools to fix loose cables GIR most likely disconnected while playing around.

Finding the right intersection and moving as fast as his body would allow him the teen started up by cleaning a mess of musty cheese and tacos that were making some cables to spark as electricity dispersed in there without giving enough power to the machine. This definitely was GIR's fault.

**...**

_The huge beast couldn't contain his excitement when he smelled the scent of the one that had escaped. He walked carefully to not get tangled in any traps as he knew he was faster than the one that had escaped._

_But before he could reach his objective the walls moved and attacked him. This area is new and he doesn't know where to avoid and where the traps were at. He needs to go through, he can't let the one that escaped before escape again._

_Not wanting to waste time he avoided the walls as they tried to catch him. But one of them managed to lock his limp limb to the floor. Ignoring the strange feeling he felt he propelled his body forward with full force and the strange thing separated from his back. He screeched as a strange feeling embraced his entire body and his mind went blank for a second. It was not the pain that made him screech though._

**_Pain was better._ **

_He ran as walls closed his path and the paths around him. Trying to corner him. Without much more option he managed to find a big enough hole in one of the small passageways and he entered without missing a beat, knowing the walls couldn't reach him there._

_The one that escaped started to run. He could clearly hear it. But something was… Wrong? Not knowing well what made his body tell him that something was wrong he kept going, he couldn't let the one that escaped escape again. He wouldn't let it happen._

_And so, something changed on his back. He felt something shifting and then he started to see a clear path he could take. Somehow he knew where the walls were closing and where he could go through. Not questioning it as it was helping him he kept going._

_Leaving the small passageways and entering back into the hallways he ran full tilt towards his objective. The walls stopped moving and the lights started to disappear. Darkness embraced him as if telling him to go._

_And so, he went._

_Finally, he reached a wall. That was the last one-he knew. But this is the only wall that would let him in, and it was closed. Feeling anger boiling on him, he started to try and open it by brute force. Some walls would let him in if he used enough force but this one seemed to not budge._

_Feeling a spark sensation on his back as he could still feel a strange feeling from his torn limb he kept on hitting the wall. Finally, with sparkles coming from his back. The walls started to move._

_It was opening._

**...**

Dib finished cleaning and patching the cables up. He moved back to his notebook and started typing, he just needed the reboot code from Cor and everything would be ready. But then Computer went quiet, he wouldn't say anything.

At first, Dib thought it was a problem with the connection or something, so he started to use his notebook to try and find an alternative way to go around the code and reboot it while his notebook tried every possible combination, which would inevitably take a while.

But then the lights went out. Dib cursed under his breath. It wasn't a small connection problem as he had wished. The teen started to do everything he could to, at least, restart his notebook. The only light he had were small blinking red lights that would just make things worse.

And finally, he started to hear Zim banging on the huge door. The only thing keeping his nemesis from finally shredding Dib apart.

But what Dib never expected was for the door to open. The teen looked as Zim's taloned hands held the slowly moving door as if he was the one prying it open. His green colour was a darker shade and the red lights shining on him made him look like he was covered in blood.

Finally, his face appeared. His red eyes shone like they never did as they looked like molten lava, producing a light of their own that gave the impression of heat as its colours varied swirling from reds to magentas to crimsons.

He had a small snot now that seemed to have lips as sharp as a turtle and his antennas seemed bigger and longer.

Cursing himself for staring too long-fascinated by the changes, Dib moved to a slightly defensive position. Getting ready to run as soon as humanly possible.

Getting relieved as his notebook came back to life, he finally gave Zim his full attention. But instead of attacking him, Zim was there, on his back legs that seemed way more muscular and looked like they had a bone structure similar to a four-legged Earthen animal, like a wolf, but with longer bones. His feet had, each, three talons that seemed better suited for grip in contrast to his longer ones on his hands.

They just stared at each other for a long time. Dib couldn't even say if it was some seconds, some minutes, or even some hours.

"Zim" The teen said as he looked at the beast's eyes, searching for any form of recognition for his previous name.

_But he saw none._

And so, he clicked on a button in his notebook that was behind him with careful movements.

The spell was broken, both had analyzed the other enough. Dib was the first one to move. He carefully walked away from his notebook-prompting Zim to slowly follow him in a circular movement, keeping always the same distance.

Both of them were waiting for the other to do the first move. Zim was probably going to be way more careful now after being paralyzed last time, and if Dib wants a way to go back home he needs to get Zim away from the only way out of this room.

Not wanting to wait anymore Dib gets a small ball from his pocket in a fast movement and throws it at the floor. The room is flooded by gray smoke and Zim jumps. Dib runs for the door as he hears Zim hissing in frustration as he accomplished nothing by being too careless and not waiting.

Smiling a bit with the thrill of what will be their last fight Dib runs through the dark hallways and open security doors. It seems that, instead of opening only what he wanted, Zim managed to open everything.

Blinking lights obscured his vision when he activated his night-vision goggles as they had some trouble with the strong red lights. But he kept going.

Hearing Zim roaring from behind Dib removed his mask; he felt the cold air from the base brushing his hot face. He heard the clicks coming his way and he finally activated his propelling boots. They were just an old prototype from the ones his dad uses today but he would, at least, run faster.

Hearing Zim picking up the pace from behind the teen started to look around for anything that could help him. But then he noticed that Zim was getting further away. For some miracle, the propelling boots were just enough for him to be slightly faster than the space-lizard.

Feeling small droplets of relief running down his face as he might have a chance to go back home his dreams were soon enough crushed when something got a hold of his right leg. The force of his velocity combined by the hard grip made his leg create an inhumane sound as pain shot upwards throughout the entirety of his body making the young boy shudder as his mind was silenced by the pain.

Dib ungraciously fell rolling on the floor and, by the end of it, he was sure his nose was broken as-well; a metallic taste flooded his mouth.

The young boy fastly looked back and saw that a PAK leg was firmly glued to his ankle, but it wasn't connected to anything… The part that was torn on the end of it sparkled as electricity was dispelled and the lights turned, every second, into a duller colour.

Then, Zim arrived.

His nemesis stopped in the hallway and looked to the scene, probably as perplexed as Dib was by what was happening. The teen lifted his right arm as to use it if Zim decides to jump and bite him, his left hand slowly creeping towards his trench coat pocket.

Zim looked Dib over; slowly getting closer. Little by little he made his way until he was only three feet from the human.

Dib's left hand had a hold on a button inside his pocket now. But instead of pressing it, the teen kept looking at his nemesis. Even though last time he seemed like he was ready to shred him apart, this time Zim looked like he was just curious.

Zim's eyes seemed to lock on him while trying to figure something out. His antennas were lifted upwards in a big C shape as if they were being slowly attracted towards him, and his entire body language seemed to be filled by curiosity.

Slowly, Dib let his guard down. His right arm going slightly downwards as his left hand started to lose its grip on the button. Finally, Zim gave a step more, coming closer. His antennas stretching towards the teen as his towering form didn't seem that menacing anymore.

Zim slowly lowered himself towards the young investigator. His eyes shone as if there were millions of stars inside of it. Mesmerized by the moving forms inside the gigantic insect-like orbs Dib let Zim do what he wanted for now.

" _Zim_ " Dib softly whispered, as if he was afraid to say those words and break the spell. His right hand slowly stretching towards his old nemesis.

Zim's eyes got bigger, the soft lights in there started to move around as he seemed to think about something.

Dib's hand finally stopped in front of Zim's small snout.

Small nostrils that Dib hadn't even realized were there started to move as the creature breathed the air and approached his hand. Then, Zim's eyes got darker and the soft movement was disrupted as a chaotic one took its place.

Dib didn't have time to do anything else other than press the small button on his left pocket when the beast jumped on him… A huge electric wave went throughout his entirety, but he felt nothing. He wasn't even able to smell the burned air that would surely follow his action. This was his decision and he was prepared for it...

_Before Zim had the pleasure of killing him._

**_Dib had killed himself._ **


	12. Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I MIGHT ONLY POST CHAPTER'S ONCE A MONTH NOW.  
> (For more info read endnotes; it'll be long)
> 
> AND THANKS FOR ALL THE KUDOS! I REALLY APPRECIATE IT!

**-Chapter Eleven-**

**Regrets**

* * *

"What is going on!?" Tak's voice echoed inside the metal circuits in a frustrated scream. Without the human, there was no need for them to use more power just to simply transform their processing of mechanicals zero and ones into sound waves so non-machines could understand them.

"I don't know. I'm trying to reconnect!" Computer's voice replied, soundless as well.

The machines were not too sure about what had happened. Dib went back to Zim's base and everything was going as planned. But then, suddenly, everything went horribly wrong. First, Cor lost all of his camera feeds-one by one. Then, he was forcefully removed from the base's interframe and systems;

_now they have no access._

Currently, the house A.I is using his debug systems and some of his Master-Keys to try and gain control back over the base. Meanwhile, Tak's ship was shutting down everything that was unnecessary and using their processing capability to give Cor more space to get back into the base's systems as soon as possible.

"Here" Computer finally said after long and excruciating minutes for both.

Tak used her processors to analyze the files Cor had sent her. "The cameras are still offline" She pointed out the obvious as they both had access to the same information stream.

"Most of them are, but not all. It seems Zim used the Master-Control-Key to take over the cameras and internal security doors. But the base is still in lockdown. For now, at least" Computer replied in a rush while he kept on processing what he could.

The situation is far from ideal. Zim still can be locked down there but how much time will it take for him to notice that he can unlock and leave the base at any moment now? How long before he leaves to the surface and then starts creating chaos on the whole planet; soon after the Universe? They can't wait. They need to do something now.

_But what?_

"I'll contact the Control Brains" Tak's ship suddenly said.

"And how do you think you're supposed to do that?" Computer bluntly asked. If it was as simple as she made it look like he would have alerted them of his master's situation a long time ago. "I figured. Think before offering something" Cor then angrily retorted, going back to analyzing other possibilities to no avail.

They already sent the Tallests a warning, but they seemed to not care about it as nothing happened and no reply was ever made. Being honest, they might not even have seen it or they might have simply blocked Zim's base from their database using the Spam feature, who knows? Cor could use up favours some machines in the Massive owed him, but there were not enough favours and debts that would convince a machine to directly contact the Tallests-even more so if it involved Zim of all Irkens.

"Isn't there a protocol or... Or something for a situation like this?" Tak's voice asked as she was reaching the same realization Cor reached a long time ago. They're machines and they follow their protocols to the letter-sometimes bending them a little-but never going too far on it.

"We could make an appointment with the Control Brains but that would take too long… We would probably be long gone pieces of scrap when our turn comes" Computer informed her.

"There's literally nothing we can do then!" Tak's voice angrily echoed in the darkroom where her ship was parked. It felt like it was fitting to scream into the room as she needed a way to vent out her frustrations before their processors started overheating.

"Well" Computer started saying his stupid idea.

**...**

A soft beeping sound kept repeating itself over and over again, beeping three times, stopping, and doing it again. Sheets moved and a hand patting a nightstand in the dark followed suit. The beeping sound stopped. A figure hidden by the dark moved to get, once again, comfortable on the bed.

The beeping sound started again.

Annoyed by it the figure sighed before sitting on the bed and turning the purple lampshade on. Gaz stretched and took her sweet time before getting up and changing clothes. She slowly brushed her teeth, fixed her long dark-purple hair the way she liked it and put some makeup on. All the while ignoring or, sometimes, simply turning the call down before finally deciding to sit on her multi-screen computer and accepting the interstellar transmission.

"What?" She moodily asked while briefly glancing at the time. It was too early in the morning to accept Dib's friend's calls and too late to simply get back to bed, she still has classes-which annoys her even more, and only gets her even moodier.

"Finally!" The gray-goat on one of her small screens-as he would never be graced with the big ones, said with indignation as his hooved feet made tapping sounds on the floor and he seemed to be, previously, walking in circles as he was fairly far away from his screen. One squint of an eye from Gaz was enough to make him remember his place on their talks.

"Right. Sorry for calling so early" The goat apologetically said while looking down when Gaz gazed at her black and purple nails without giving him her attention.

"So. What do you want?" She asked and then looked at her screen, signalizing he could talk now.

"I've been trying to contact Dib for some time. But he doesn't answer. Has something happened?" Dib's alien friend asked with a concerned expression. Even though her brother has difficulty deciphering alien expressions she learned it fast enough.

"Why do you want to contact him? Have you incited him on doing something reckless again?" Gaz asked while directly staring at the camera.

_AKA; the old goat._

"No…" He said, but it wasn't enough to convince the teenager moody girl. " _Maybe…?_ " He finally answered in a small voice after some doom staring from Gaz's part.

"Ugh. Don't worry. He's sick and probably sleeping or agonizing over wanting to go to Zim's base and not being able to" The girl then noticed a small red dot of light blinking in the corner of her monitor, under a skull PNG. "Do you want me to send him a message or something after he wakes up?" She asked.

While the goat-man started to say something about being preoccupied with Dib and that she needs to stop him from going to Zim's base as he's afraid her brother will be reckless or something Gaz softly cursed under her breath while opening up some of her most intricate programs.

Interrupting the goat Gaz spoke up to the other-unwanted visitor. "Haven't you learned from last time about invading my systems?"

Tak's voice screeched in fear inside her speakers as the ship noticed it was caught red-handed. The gray-goat seemed interested in it, tought.

Not letting the ship notice that the resisty's ship leader was there Gaz waited for an answer as she pressed a red button under her desk and a loading screen opened in one of her medium monitors.

"DibwenttoZim'sbaseandwecan'tcontacthimanymore" Tak's mechanical voice said without missing a beat. With the corner of her eye Gaz noticed that the gray-goat got some shades darker-which meant whiter for a human standpoint.

Muting the goat before he says something stupid Gaz skeptically replies. "He's not at Zim's. He's asleep"

Tak's ship keeps quiet for some seconds before talking again in sudden fear. "No, he came to us and asked about Zim. Then the Dib human went to Zim's base earlier this morning"

"So, you two sent him there again? And he got into a problem?" Gaz asked and the ship's silence was everything she needed to hear.

On the goat's screen, Ixane appeared from behind. Groaning internally and asking herself why this shit must happen this early-and before skool nonetheless, Gaz unmuted Ixane. Not caring if Tak's A.I hears them or not.

"Ok, what's the problem now?" The teen girl asked while looking at the Resisty's screen.

**...**

"You were right. He was reckless" Lard Nar said with his hands covering his face.

" _Hey..._ Hey" Ixane approached him and carefully touched his shoulder. "Everyone makes a mistake every so often" She tried to calm her captain but he was still sulking.

"Not one that might kill others! I should have listened to you. Dib was just a youngling. Of course, he was going to be reckless!" The Vortian said with a voice filled to the brim with regret.

"We don't know that. Tak's A.I said she just lost contact with him. He could be fine" Ixane said while lifting Lard Nar's face so he would see her calming and mesmerizing blue eyes. "And even if something bad happened you're still the captain of this crew. We need you and you can't keep sulking. You heard Gaz, she'll do something about it. We just need to be patient and not jump to conclusions, okay? Now let's get you back up, you'll be needed at the bridge, Captain"

Lard Nar nodded and got up with her help. If something happens to that childling he will never be able to forgive himself. He should be ashamed of pushing so much into Dib's shoulders and letting him deal with it by himself when he is nothing more than a childling.

**...**

Groaning as her head throbbed with all the problems that happened in a single day, Gaz finally came back home-walking after class. She respects that Dib likes his old truck and she's not going to mess with it without his permission (unless it's revenge time, then everything is on the clear). And Membrane will only give her her own car when she gets her driver's license, so she can't do anything else but use the bus and go home on her own.

Opening the front doors Gaz walked inside and closed them behind herself. She went to the kitchen for an energy drink and after the caffeine-or whatever else they put on those things nowadays, started with its effect she walked to Membrane's lab and opened the door with the security number that he gave her.

While mumbling and cursing her brother's stupidity Gaz went down the stairs and started to look around, trying to remember the right secret door she needs to go through. Even though Dib has been down here way more times than herself-as per his agreement with Membrane that he'll only use weapons he created himself with science, he never managed to find ONE of the secrets this lab holds.

Remembering the right path she lazily walked over a wall in the far end of the lab, one of the oldest parts Membrane has a tendency to avoid for some reason. She found the right machine and moved it out of the way.

Looking around and taking another sip of her energy drink Gaz touched the wall and moved her hand around until she felt that, instead of paint, there was metal. Feeling the size of the metal plate she imagined the order of the numbers and pressed her hand down, after waiting for three seconds she lifted her hand and used the right combination: 0511. Touching her finger in the wall as if a numbered keypad was there.

Without any indication that anything happened as no sound and no light was emitted, Gaz walked over a small dust-covered desk and used her finger to find a small button under it and upon finding it, she pressed it. Then she felt a small sting as a needle most likely was used to verify her blood and identity or something.

Finally, a wall and a big invention started to move as dust filled the air and a secret passageway revealed itself. Scratching her irritated nose with the amount of dust, Gaz finally entered the mysterious opening.

She didn't need to walk for too long before reaching a dark blue and white room; its lights turned on when she entered it. Avoiding her gaze from the gigantic test-tube in there Gaz started to fiddle with some controls and buttons, after that was done she got some stun-weapons from the desk and-only after cursing her brother's stupidity, she pressed the big blue button that had some green lighting shining from under it.

**...**

A car was speeding through every traffic light possible-not waiting for pedestrians or even other vehicles. Strangely enough, though, no one seemed to care. The machine went with full force to one single direction as its driver had one single purpose in mind.

Finally reaching its destiny the vehicle didn't stop until it had gone over the sidewalk and into a house's front lawn. Not being bothered by it, a tall man that used goggles and a gigantic white coat-covering his face, almost ran to the front door of his house.

Unlocking the door and entering without bothering to close it from behind Membrane was about to go downstairs in his personal lab when Gaz aborted him.

"What are You doing here?" She asked in an angered voice from the kitchen.

"I don't have time for this" Membrane said as he walked/ran downstairs.

Feeling rage taking over her body Gaz didn't stop herself when she walked after the scientist-only doing so when the shock of what the scientist had just said ended. But before she could go too far into the lab she heard a pained cry coming from Membrane's voice, something she never imagined hearing like this.

Getting confused as to what was going on Gaz walked downstairs quietly-taming her anger to not scream at Membrane the moment she saw him. But what she didn't expect was to see one of the many hidden doors open and _sobbing…?_ sounds coming from it…

Carefully walking, Gaz finally arrived at the room. Membrane was on the floor, his position gave away that his knees simply failed him… He was looking at an empty tank with a fist locked onto it as if he had just hit it.

_Gaz couldn't believe her eyes._

" _Dad…?_ " His daughter softly said from the doorway-in the caring way he wished to hear for such a long time now, only managing to get her angered voice and cold side whenever he tried to talk to her. But he ignored the feeling over the bigger looming shadow that scrambled all of his thoughts away.

" _He's gone_ " Gaz's father said in an almost inaudible voice. The girl's eyes widened before softening as she approached her dad, putting a hand on his shoulder as he silently cried on the cold hard floor of the lab.

After enough time had passed and Gaz felt like she had had enough revenge on him she finally opened her mouth to speak. "He's asleep"

Membrane looked at her, his goggles hiding his eyes-but she knew they were filled by confusion.

"I restarted the machine some days ago. He's safe. He's home. And he's simply asleep" Gaz said while a small smile showed on her features.

Feeling like a thousand pounds left his shoulders Membrane got up from the floor and ran all the way to his little boy's room. Opening the door relief flooded the man as he saw Dib's sleeping form on his bed. Probably still sedated.

Feeling more tears falling from his eyes-tears of relief, Membrane slowly closed the door to not bother his sleeping son. Seeing Gaz on the stairs the scientist followed her to the kitchen so Dib could sleep undisturbed.

"I reckon you regret deactivating it" His daughter said while leaning in the kitchen cabinet with folded arms and a serious face that was hiding her true emotions at the given moment.

Membrane-with shaking hands, started to manually do some coffee. Just when he had a sip of the sweet sourness and his hands stopped shaking he decided to nod his head slowly. His mind wandering back to the small red-blinking-dot that indicated his son had made some serious mistakes in judgment-and the despair he felt when remembering what he had done in the past and why the light removed all colour from his features. His employees must be worried sick with him as he left with no explanation with a ghostly face.

"Are you going to stop with this bullshit now?" Gaz asked while opening her eyes in a small glare. As if she was studying him and his reactions.

Since Dib called him that fateful night after those lunatics had gone too far with him, Dib still begged for him to spare some members of that horrific group from his blood-sucking lawyers… After that, his relationship with Dib just went further and further into the drain.

The scientist can't accept he believed that, if he started ignoring his son, Dib would stop making so many reckless decisions and would try real science again. He, the brightest man in the Universe believed that if the machines were turned off Dib wouldn't do something dangerous without proper care. But Dib did it anyway, and everything Membrane can think of is that he is grateful Gaz went against his word and reactivated it before permanent damages were done.

"Yes" The famous scientist said after a minute's silence. He can't keep avoiding his problems like this for the rest of his life. "Thank you, Gaz" He thanked her after one more sip of his coffee. He didn't even need to look to know that Gaz was astonished by his reaction.

Nodding, Gaz finally let her arms fall by her side. Getting her small portable gaming device-that was forgotten in the dining table for some minutes, she looked at him and nodded once before leaving. "I'm going to stay upstairs, for when he wakes up. He's going to be confused" These were her departing words.

Finishing his coffee, Membrane looked at his modified Membracelet before going downstairs and into his lab, he needed to re-activate a lot of machines. And some time alone to think everything through.

**...**

With a startled yelp and a huge headache, Dib woke up with no orientation whatsoever. He couldn't distinguish up from down and right from left. He just felt like he was somewhere and nowhere at the same time. Then, everything came crashing back down on him as he groaned in pain.

"Zim!" Was the only thing Dib said remembering that he needs to go back to Zim's base before it's too late.

_But wasn't he there just a few minutes ago?_

Feeling another big wave of pain going through his brain Dib groaned as he reached for his glasses, but not finding them. Cursing, he started to try and get up from his bed, but sudden nausea hit him, hard, making him fall from his elbows and back to his bed in a rather pitiful display.

The door to his room suddenly opened and Dib hissed as the light hit his eyes in a harmful way, filling his vision with even more tears.

"Dib?" He heard Gaz's voice.

The teen felt another incredible wave of pain as his ears started ringing. He was in trouble. _Why?_ Gaz warned him. _About what?_ About leaving. But he didn't leave, _did he?_

Feeling like his brain was catching on fire the teen didn't notice when another figure entered his bedroom, listening only to two unrecognizable voices talking to each other in the distance as his mind was filled by pain.

Dib then felt a strong pinching like pain on his shoulder. Not liking it he tried to move away but big hands held his shoulders in place. The pain was too unbearable for the teen to even consider trying to move his legs and avoid it by kicking whoever was holding him in place. He just couldn't move at all.

Dib felt a strange sensation, one like when you're injected with something. He felt a cold liquid entering his body and spreading through his veins. But he never managed to clearly comprehend what was happening as wave after wave of pain flooded his entire cognitive systems while his body felt ice cold-beginning from the injection point and spreading everywhere like a wild-fire.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Dib felt himself coming back. But he only opened his eyes when the ringing was gone and the pain subdued to tolerable levels. Upon opening his eyes the first thing he saw was Gaz, the next one was his da- _Wait, why was his dad here?_

" _Dad…?_ " The teen said in a hoarse voice, not believing his blurry vision.

"Yes?" Membrane asked. Dib lifted his hand as if to touch his dad and assure himself he's not dreaming, and Membrane reached back. When their hands collided the young teen started to cry while using his other hand to hold his aching chest.

Feeling awkward for being in the middle of Dib's moment-not even talking about him being naked under the bedsheets, Gaz decided to leave and stay outside, hearing their talk but not interfering with it.

They both need their space now.

**...**

After the embrace Membrane had to hastily leave; his scientists were thinking the world was going to end upon seeing their biggest genius leaving the labs with such a fearful and ghostly pale expression on. He had to stop it before the news channels got wind of it or things would be very, VERY bad. So, he had to cut his visit short with the promise of properly talking with his children as soon as he can convince everyone it wasn't a worldwide emergency.

Feeling his left leg stinging when Gaz sat down on his bed by his side-only after he was properly dressed, Dib decided to start questioning her. And she was, surprisingly, more than willing to answer everything.

Apparently, dad created a machine after presencing how reckless Dib could be sometimes in his hunts for the paranormal. This machine would put his real body in cryogenic sleep and a 'fake' body of sorts would be implemented with his memories so, if Dib was ever to do something reckless, the robot would die instead of him. But it had some after-effects like memory-loss, intensive headaches and the robot seemed to be way more reckless and carefree for some reason.

Gaz was always the 'unofficial' judge from when to activate it as dad wasn't home and she was always hearing Dib's ramblings and knew when he was going to do something dangerous-not that he never managed to escape the machine's grasps once in a while. And sometimes she wouldn't activate it for fun, but it's not like she's telling Dib.

" **That!** _Actually explains a lot..._ " The teen said in a frustrated sigh, starting with a hint of indignation but ending in an understanding voice.

"Impressively enough, this is the first time you died. Not that you never came close before..." Gaz replied in a slightly mocking way. "What happened?" She then asked with a serious face on, intensely looking at her older brother for any clues.

Upon receiving no answer-with Dib only looking away, Gaz opened her mouth. "From your reaction, I take that Zim killed you" When she saw how Dib flinched she got up. "It's time to end this then. If he attacks you for no reason whatsoever I'm doing what you clearly can't"

"No! Wait!" Her older brother said, and Gaz actually stopped.

"Give me a good reason than" She said under her breath without looking back at Dib. Ixane told her how dangerous Irkens can be in that state and she's not letting some space-bug ruin her family. If anyone is doing that it's her! But she doesn't want to ruin her relationship with Dib over this as well.

"He attacked me only after he noticed it wasn't me" Dib said with his eyes growing wide at his own realization. His sister looked back at him, asking for an explanation with her eyes.

"I don't know. He was fine and he never really attacked me. He just... _Looked._ As if he was curious or something. But after he- he _sniffed_ my hand. He noticed it wasn't me" The investigator said with a pained voice as his head hurt while he remembered the events. His voice was small and his eyes were distant-as if he was not in the room anymore but rather, in Zim's base before Zim attacked him.

Dib forced himself back to the present. "Please. I think I can still help him" He said in a pained voice.

Gaz looked at him long and hard. But his expression of determination never changed. Knowing he's decided the girl finally gave up on their little contest. He was always better dealing with the space-cockroach than her either way. "Okay. But I want protective measures. And if he ever again attacks" Giving a sly smirk. "To kill you" She used a very menacing expression now. " _He's gone for. Do you understand_ "

Dib never nodded so fast in his life.

**...**

"He's a crazed beast that needs to be put down!" Computer's voice echoed in the garage.

"No! He's still there! I saw it!" Dib screamed back while stomping his good leg on the floor.

"You're crazy!" Tak's voice replied to the human's stupid idea.

"And how do you plan on killing him when you can't even catch him?" Gaz's menacing voice appeared with a soft growl in the middle of the shouting contest-essentially shutting everyone up as, even without screaming, her voice seemed to be ever so present and imposing in the dark garage.

"Dib has put a temporizer there. It's just a matter of time before I can blow the house up" Computer's voice replied.

The investigator was about to retort when Gaz did so for him. "If you so much as think on doing it without everyone's agreement I'm going to hack into that base and open everything up so Zim can escape before you can even _think_ of doing something to him"

"You would rather put your planet in jeopardy than letting us deal with the beast?" Tak's voice asked as Dib and Cor were stunned shut from Gaz's comment.

"If Dib says he can control Zim then I believe him. And if Zim kills some morons, then it's at least a favour to mankind" She coldly replies without missing a beat.

"What if I do it before you can do anything about it, huh?" Tak's A.I retorts. At this point, she doesn't care about being dismantled or reprogrammed. If she's able to end Zim and help the empire by getting rid of the green menace, then she doesn't mind what happens to her afterwards.

"Are you going to risk it? Or is this just a baseless threat?" Gaz asked, moving ever so closer to the ship as her threatening aura involved everyone, making even the machines shudder in fear.

"You're going to live with the consequences of your actions if you're not careful" Tak's ship A.I said in a small and dark voice.

"I already do" Gaz retorted. Promptly shutting the ship up.

**...**

"Uhhh. Sir's" A not-so-annoyingly-small advisor said while holding an Irkpad, his expression was one of an Irken that had just discovered all snacks ceased to exist.

" _Uhgg. Whaaaat?_ " Purple lazily asked as red lifted one lekkus in question while one of his eyes squinted. While his co-ruler wasn't looking Red saw the advisor's expression.

Noticing that he didn't want to say anything before having their full attention, Red patted Purple's arm so he would pay more attention to the talk. It's not like it's Purple's fault to be bored as there were no canon sweeps so far during this cycle and everything they did was sit down and eat snacks as the Control Brains onboard reprimanded them for throwing so many drones out of the airlock in such a small time-frame. So they couldn't do that either...

But it's not like it's their fault! The Resisty hasn't tried to attack them for some time now and it was getting really boring to be inside the Massive as they were pretty far from their next target and no one dared to get near them after they exploded other species ships-even if they were allies, for ' _blocking'_ their path.

Receiving a pat on his own arm now Red refocused on the advisor. "What" He said in an annoyed voice.

"Well…" The advisor said with a fearful expression on.

"Come on! Out with it!" Purple snapped at the other-smaller, Irken.

"Zim'sbasehassentawarningaboutaBerserkerIrkeninthere" The advisor said in a rush.

" _Whvat?_ " Purple asked while munching on a donut.

The advisor breathed slowly-as he seemed near to have his PAK friend in stress alone. And then he repeated himself, but slower. "Zim's base has sent a warning about a Berserker Irken in there"

"Berserker?" Red asked. He had a nibbling sensation he had heard that word before.

The advisor seemed to gulp in a stressful reflex, but before he could explain Purple ACTUALLY dropped his donut as his face plundered into despair. His lekkuses went downwards and his eyes grew huge as his mouth kept gaping and his skin turned into a sickly green shade.

Red worryingly shot a small glance to his co-ruler before desperately asking again. "What is it!?"

**...**

"Are we ready?" Gaz asked with an annoying voice while boringly looking at Dib running around with a backpack and getting a lot of stupid alien stuff and throwing it all in his bag.

"I think…" He said while looking inside his bag and stuffing it with more jerky. "That's it" He finally said after being satisfied with the amount of meat, sweets and alien tech he might need to use if Zim gets a little more aggressive.

"Uhg Finally!" Gaz said while going up from her seat inside the Irken ship. After the argument, she connected her Game-Slave in it and promptly messed around with the A.I's for invading her systems AFTER her warning, and preventing them from doing anything to Zim's base without her knowledge.

Both siblings got up and started their walk towards Zim's base. It was a chilly night and the sky was hidden behind thick clouds. It didn't seem like rain was coming, though.

"And what's your plan?" Gaz asked while her hands were inside her pockets and she looked upwards-directly at the darkness of the black sky.

Dib looked at her and then looked back at where he was going before answering with a serious face. "I'll be very careful with him at first. I don't know for sure what his reaction will be, but I hope he won't be very mad and I'll be able to bribe him into getting calm with the jerky and the sweets. I hope"

"And after that?" Gaz asked as she looked at Dib. Her nose was starting to feel cold.

"After that. I think I'll try to see how smart he is. And if I can teach him stuff, see if I can get him back to his old self or something by showing him pictures, see if I can get a reaction" Her brother said with determination. When he's like this she thinks of herself when she wants to doom someone-nothing would stop her from doing it. And Dib acts just like her, only in his case, he's not after vengeance, but after a brighter future.

Just like their dad…

They kept their slow stride in silence.

"Do you blame me for doing it?" Gaz finally asked with her eyes cast downwards.

"What?" Dib asked, looking at her. Upon seeing his younger sister with such a strange demeanour he stopped. She stopped as well.

"Do you blame me for reactivating the machine?"Gaz asked in a small voice.

"What? Why would I blame you?" Her older brother said with concern.

"It was your choice that day. Your choice to go out and do what you had to do. And you did it without remorse... I- I read your note Dib" Gaz confessed.

Dib's heart stopped. He completely forgot about the note.

The teen feared he wouldn't come back home from Zim's base so he left a small letter for Gaz and their dad. He said he did what he had to and that he had no regrets if he ended up dying. He wrote that he was leaving without a heavy heart and without any remorse because he knew that if he was going to die he would do so for a great cause and that they shouldn't be concerned for him as he would be in a better place where-independent of what happened in the afterlife, he could at least rest in peace without his usual concerns about his day-to-day life with all his bullies and being called crazy or maniac… And that he felt _envy_ for the dead people as they didn't need to deal with all those shitty things, wherever they are...

"Gaz… I" The teen said, but before he could keep going the ground started shaking.

Looking forward to where they were going, both siblings saw as a huge explosion engulfed Zim's base up in flames.

A small mushroom cloud started to form as a huge shockwave threw both of them backwards and to the ground, a car was thrown in their direction and stopped in front of them-not hitting the siblings by a hair, as broken glass covered them both and the ground around them.

Shrapnel started falling from the sky. Dib did his best to use his body to cover Gaz from the hit as glass sharts and metal parts flew and fell everywhere around them.

When everything was finally over and both siblings got up in ragged clothes-with scratches everywhere and huge drops of blood falling from their hurt bodies to the floor.

The only thing Dib could do upon seeing that his sister seemed mostly fine was to look at Zim's base direction.

_But he couldn't see the alien-looking house anywhere._

_**It was gone.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So. I've been studying for two years now trying to enter a medical college. And my friend indicated one for me in a small city that's six-hours away from my current home. Not thinking much of it I subscribed myself and sent the grade of a big Nacional exam we do every year here and, surprise surprise! I was accepted in a very high position, which would never happen where I live because there are too many people. (We researched it extensively and even talked with people that study there and it seems everything is right and it's a real college. They just recently added the medical option and that's why I've never heard of them but they seem to be very serious)
> 
> I've talked with my family and I'll be trying to enter a national program where they help paying the university as it's just too expensive for us but I might be able to do it. But I'll be having classes all day from Monday to Friday and I'll need good grades if I want to try and transfer to a college near home.
> 
> Being honest, I have no idea what'll happen during those next months, even with corona out there. We'll only have one class that'll be presential as it's mandatory but the class is in half capability and they'll rotate so there are even fewer students in the presential classes. We're seeing so I can move there and I'll need to get my driver's license because here you need to be 18 and if I stay in that city (if the college is good and the city is calm) I'll need one as there's literally one bus driver from the city center to the college LOL. So I'll even have more things cramped in my schedule.
> 
> I have no idea how things will be from now on and I can't promise a chapter per week now as medicine is really hard and I want to be a good professional (I want to be a pediatrician, taking care of kids) and have good grades. But I think I'll still write on weekends whenever I get some free time for myself to decompress from all the studying. But I have no idea how my writing schedule will be from now on.
> 
> So, next week I think the chapter will be out by Friday, but from there on, I can't promise anything. I'll do my best to release a new one every month but I don't want to promise anything as I'm not sure. I might even pause it or take more than one month to finish just a chapter, or I might be on a writing spree and writhe two chapters on the same day. I really don't know.
> 
> And cliffhanger again Yayyyy! But at least Dib's well... And I'll give him some time out from almost dying so much. It's Zim's turn now :3  
> And I'll leave the "Character death" warning cause I'll keep you guys on your toes. You'll never know if I character died for real... Muahahahahhaha.
> 
> Hope the best for you guys! And see ya next time!  
> (Or in the comments, I'll try to reply to then whenever I see them!)


	13. A New Opportunity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! As I said in the last chapter, the next one might take a while before being released. If I end up doing only one chapter per month I might try to make them, at least, bigger to compensate. But it all will depend on my schedule for the next weeks. But I'll try to have something akin to a schedule for you guys as soon as possible! I really want to finish this fic but it'll be a big one if I manage to do everything I want. And there are still too many loose ends. Being honest this fic might only end in the house of 200k words. At least that's what I think as we're not even in the middle and are already past the mark of 50k.
> 
> And I made a Tumblr with some drawings (most of them are from last year as I haven't done a digital drawing in a long time, and the new one ended up being ugly but I wanted to post it LMAO)
> 
> https://katsukkykitsune.tumblr.com/post/624262461992910848/the-first-digital-drawing-i-do-in-half-a-year-now (this is the link for anyone who's interested) I tried my best while trying some new forms of painting as I really want to learn how to make a more realistic painting, but it ended up being meh~ at best. I might post some pencil made drawings or something in the future, I'm not sure, as I won't have my PC with me and my notebook really hates drawing ,-,
> 
> Welp, that's it for now I think. See you guys in the next one and hope only the best for all of you! I'm really grateful for all your Kudos, comments and bookmarks! It makes me really happy to see how many people have been reading and supporting this fic!

**-Chapter twelve-**

**A New Opportunity**

* * *

_The walls moved at his command. But he couldn't wait anymore, he wanted to see the other that once managed to escape his claws._

_He HAD to see this other._

_The walls slowly moved, but he couldn't wait. Without missing a beat, he trusted his talons on the small opening and moved his arms as if trying to make the walls open faster. When the opening was large enough, he tried to enter, but his body was too large._

_He could see the one that escaped!_

_He was there!_

_The one who escaped moved as if he was ready for a fight. Not waiting, he prepared as well-separating his legs and moving his big tail in a position that would help him keep his balance. The walls kept moving, and finally opened, so he could enter._

_But the other never moved, he stayed there waiting-and looking him over. Feeling something growing in his chest, something that heated his cold skin from the inside, he felt as if it was right for the other to stare at him this way._

_As if it was meant to be._

_Then, after what felt like a very long time, the other made a sound. Being caught off guard he didn't know what the sound was supposed to be. A threatening call? Or was it a call asking for mercy? It was strange, and a sensation told him that he knew what the sound meant._

_But he didn't._

Did he?

_The other then did something on his back as a small 'click' like sound could be heard coming from there. Feeling as if something was about to start, he paid close attention to what the other was doing._

_The other was the first one to move._

_With steady and slow steps, the one who once escaped slowly crept his way away from something that was blinking, when he was far away and he was distracted by the blinking lights the other caught him off guard when he threw a small, round thing to the floor._

_When he noticed it something smelly was covering his vision. He felt the other moving and jumped as if to catch him, but he was only met with the cold and hard walls. Feeling an excitement building within him as the other was running away he fastly got up and started to run full tilt towards the other. But, for some reason, the other was too fast!_

_Noticing this he growled in anger while trying to speed even more to catch the one who escaped. But no matter how much effort he did the other kept going faster._

_He was going to escape again!_

_As they ran and the other slowly got further and further away, he felt something strange… A connection... Of sorts, to something… Something he can't understand._

_Then, as if a bolt of electricity ran through his back-beginning at his feelers and ending at the tip of his tail, something moved. But this movement that was his was far away. He felt something being grabbed and saw as the one who escaped fell to the floor when a strange sound of something breaking echoed in the tunnels._

_He stopped and looked at the other when he was close enough. A smell he knew so well impregnated the air. The other lifted his arm in a pitiful attempt at defence while he walked ever so closer. But he didn't want to seem threatening. He was curious. Something was wrong. And he wanted to know what._

_His body kept telling him this other isn't the one who escaped. But he is! He is exactly the same!_

_Not wanting to pass the wrong feeling to the other he approached slowly, he just wanted his feelers to stop telling him this one isn't the one that escaped! And the other finally noticed he doesn't want to hurt him. Yet... As he slowly moved his defensive arm away._

_Looking directly at the other's eyes he approached as if that single gesture was an invite, the smell was there! This is the one who escaped! His feelers are wro-_

"Zim"

_The other softly said._

_He felt a shockwave in his entirety as if that sound had a deeper meaning. He felt as if he was screaming without a sound being made. He felt… A lot of things at the same time. The silence stopped as his body felt hot and cold at the same time._

_The other moved, but he wasn't paying attention in his current state. The other's arm got really close, and something abruptly ended with his conflict as his brain understood something. This one does not have the same smell as the one who escaped, it's close, but it's not the same. Feeling a lot of things that made his insides ache he jumped with the intention to kill._

_And kill he did._

_Or, at least, he tried. As a huge shockwave hit him the moment he connected with the other. He smelled his own body burning and boiling on itself as his jaws locked in place and his limbs thrashed around the cold tunnel. Something snapped on his back as thunder echoed in the entire place and the room turned into a supernova with the brightest of lights._

_He felt his back fighting the current and then absorbing everything as a strange sensation filled him up and he felt more energetic than ever. And then, he felt the screamy one scream. He was back laughing and crying at the same time while conflicting emotions that were turned off finally re-appeared in sudden waves._

_When his jaws were finally free to move, he felt something strange. As if something new had appeared. Then he noticed, he had more limbs._

_Two more._

**...**

"Override everything. **NOW!** " Red screamed at the top of his squeedlyspooch.

"We're trying Sirs. But his base it too outdated and it'll take a whi-"

"We don't care! Just kill him already!" Purple screamed as well.

Both Tallests were causing a big ruckus after the Massive received an alert that an Irken had gone Berserker. Well, if it was just that it wouldn't be too much of a problem. The REAL problem was which Irken had undergone such changes: The menace to the whole Empire, FoodDrone Zim.

He single-handedly ended Operation Impending Doom I by destroying their army, got their home-planet Irk on blackout two times and killed the two previous Tallests! And the worst part is that most of what he did was in his youth!

And now, to make things _better,_ he turned into a Berserker! The biggest threat anyone can deal with is a Berserker. They're smart, fast, strong, and learn everything in light-speed time. But what really is dangerous about them is their unpredictability, you never know what they're going to do, and who they're going to attack next.

If Zim was an unpredictable threat before, imagine him now!

But Zim's base is so outdated that they can't control the wireless self-explode function. The cameras are offline and the systems, although still functional at some level, are all down to minimum consumption as the base was forced into lockdown some time ago, probably to contain the menace. At least that's what the Irkens who should be killing Zim are saying.

"Why can't we just kill him already!" Purple whined as he fluctuated around shaking donuts in his talons as if to emphasize what he was saying.

"Give me this Irkpad!" Red exploded as he removed one of the consoles from a drone's claws.

He started scanning the Irkpad to see if he could discover what the problem was and why they couldn't just explode the small defective while Purple screamed and started throwing some donuts at the drones-he was super freaked out on what Zim can do now as he is the one who has the most knowledge on Berserkers, and this freaked out Red even more.

"Hey. What's this?" Red asked while pointing at a file he couldn't recognize from his databanks.

A drone came and looked at what he was pointing at. The drone then furrowed. "I don't know Sir..."

"How can't you know? Aren't you specialized in it!? Or do you need to go back to the academy?" Red threatened and the drone shuddered.

"No Sir. This file is not in any databank I have and I can assure you no other drone will have it as well"

"Hey, you!" Red pointed at another drone. "Look at this" He then shoved the Irkpad at his face, showing him the strange file, but he got the same answer.

"Then download it!" Red said to the drones.

"What. Sir this can be dange-" With one squint of an eye, the initial drone was downloading the file without any more questions as the other drone looked ready to have a PAK attack.

"Now tell me what is it?" The red-clad Tallest asked as Purple came to see what he was looking at after he was done freaking out.

"This is a-" Before the drone could keep going sparkles came out of his PAK and his eyes turned a deep purple colour before he dropped into the floor in a sudden seizure as drool escaped from his mouth and a burst of mechanical laughter echoed in the bridge.

The lights started to blink and the Massive turned off.

" **What is going on!?** " Red screamed as he looked around, more Irkens were dropping to the floor like flies as the Massive started to do a lot of strange sounds and sparkles flew everywhere.

Purple started running around screaming again.

" **Everyone that's not on the floor! To your positions. NOW!** " The red-clad Tallest commanded. Everyone followed suit without a question.

"Heat-Management team, see if there's a problem in the cores or if we overheated! Social-Link team, contact every one and see what our losses are at! Flight team, collaborate with the Heat-Management team and try to get our systems online again! Defensive team, collaborate with-" The Red Tallest kept barking orders as the Purple one received files on their losses and what they'll need to re-supply on their next stop so he would stop freaking out and concentrate on something else for the time being.

When everything was back on-line and in order-thankfully, no attack was done while their defences were down, Red received a report saying that Zim's base had suddenly blown up. Lifting a lekkus at that he showed it to Purple as they both could barely understand what had just happened.

"I want a full report by yesterday on what happened!" Red barked as Purple was still counting how many Irkens and snacks were lost in the confusion as reports were still coming in.

**...**

_Something was wrong._

_The screamy one was certain of it, and his back kept saying the same. Feeling a deep need to leave-even his safe place was not safe anymore, he walked and walked, following what his back was saying, and showing, as the right path._

_Ignoring every creature and not pausing even to eat he kept going as he needed to leave. This place was not as inviting as it once was and the darkness was starting to get on his nerves. He couldn't stand it anymore._

_Passing through a tunnel he saw the limp body of the one that faked being the one who escaped. Scoffing at it he kept going without paying it too much heed. The smell of sparkle was still there and the floor was still stingy to walk on, but he kept going._

_He kept on walking through the tunnels and the passageways, following the path his back and the screamy one was showing him. The only thing he got with him was a small squishy toy he found on the way and a walking disaster that kept following him thinking it was being sneaky. But he ignored it as he needed to leave._

_After a very long walk, he finally reached the place where he last saw the one who escaped. His smell was everywhere, but he was nowhere to be seen. This place was nicer. It was lighter and hotter than his last safe-place. But it was too humid to his liking, and he still had to leave._

_Following what his back said he walked to a place and tried clawing on the floor as his exit was there. But he didn't know how to leave or how to make this floor move. He could move the walls but not the floor. And it seemed even his back couldn't move it as well, at least not now._

_The floor started to tremble._

_He had to leave. NOW. looking around he tried clawing at everything he could see but nothing seemed to budge. Feeling truly afraid for the first time he got the small squishy thing and hid in a corner in a small ball as he just knew he wanted to leave but couldn't._

_Nowhere was safe._

_The floor kept trembling and he heard a massive sound roaring inside the tunnels and echoing all the way upwards. Images filled his mind of something he didn't know. Something he didn't remember. Lights and things, he never knew and has never seen appeared as his back roared with newfound life and the screamy one finally stayed silent._

_Before he knew it, a big explosion happened and everything went up in flames with a huge roar._

**...**

" **ZIM!"**

The teen screamed at the top of his lungs as he walked around in the explosion site. Gaz was mostly fine and she was sitting not far away as she did something with her GS-IV. Looking around Dib called Zim's name again as he looked under debris and huge plates of metal;

Nothing was left.

Every machine and equipment Zim had disappeared-turning into scrap metal and exploding up in flames and shrapnel. The houses around Zim's base lost a big chunk of their walls and some fires were happening, but overall, everyone seemed fine if not a bit hurt.

Everything left was a lot of rubble and metal pieces inside a really big hole in the ground. Not wanting to think about what must've happened with the lowest floors of the alien base and how this place could very easily collapse any moment now depending on the answer Dib kept looking around. The teen didn't have much time before firetrucks and the police arrived, he had to find Zim, and soon.

Dib screamed Zim's name again. Amidst everyone, he knew Zim was the only one who believed him capable and not-insane; someone worth receiving the title of Zim's worst nemesis. He can't lose Zim now, even if they are not friends per-say he can't lose the only one who stayed by his side all those years. Even if Gaz is less mean and his dad is gaining interest in his life again Zim is special, he is not family and he ALWAYS believed Dib was capable of doing everything.

The young teen screamed again as his voice started growing hoarse. He can listen more clearly to the sirens as the officials are probably closing in.

"Dib, let's go…" Gaz, who came without Dib noticing in his despair, said with a soft and caring voice from his back.

Ignoring his sister Dib screamed Zim's name again as tears started to fill his vision up and his shoulders slumped down. The base probably exploded because of him; his notebook must have found the right code to activate the self-destroy function faster than what he predicted.

"Dib, please, let's just go…" Gaz tucked the sleeve of his torn trench coat as she repeated the same phrase.

Letting tears fall down, Dib let himself cry in front of his sister as his worst nemesis, and only friend is gone. The young teen let himself fall to the floor as more and more tears filled his vision. The only thing his little sister could do was rub his back gently as he cried some more with the sounds of sirens looming in the back.

Then, a huge purple bean exploded from a bunch of scraps and metal plates that weren't too far away, getting everything out of the way.

Zim was there, on the floor and beaten up, but he was there.

He was alive.

He HAD to be alive.

Getting up, the teen ran towards Zim; his huge form was sprawled on the floor like a broken doll. At his side, mini-moose was laying on the floor lifeless as all his power had probably been used to create that beam. Zim looked very beaten up and his right arm was nowhere to be seen, a pink-purplish puddle was forming around his lifeless body-increasing by the minute, but his PAK was still radiating a lifeless light.

As Dib got closer the PAK legs got out and threatened to impale him if he dared walk a step closer.

" _GeT AwAy StInKy HyuUmAn"_ A mechanical voice echoed around, seemingly coming from the PAK.

"Zim? Is this you!?" The investigator asked as he leaned closer, the mechanical legs showing their sharp ends and reading themselves to hurt the boy pretty bad if he dared coming one step closer.

" _Of CoUrSe ThI-_ " Zim's mechanical voice abruptly stopped as the PAK suddenly lost all life and the legs fell to the floor as if their strings were cut.

" **ZIM!** " Running to his nemesis side Dib tried to lift him up and get him away before the cops showed up, but he was just too big and too heavy!

Hearing a repetitive humming sound Dib looked up in time to see Tak's ship lowering to the explosion site, he then felt Zim's weight being lifted as Gaz helped him with Zim's huge new body.

With the PAK legs, tail, and limbs trailing behind both siblings managed to get the mess Zim was inside the cramped spaceship and secure him there so he wouldn't fall, he was so big the opening couldn't completely close.

"I don't believe I'm doing this!" Tak's voice spoke from the ship, filled with indignation.

"Yes, yes you are" Gaz retorted and pressed a button on her Game Slave IV. The spaceship lifted once more as Tak's voice could be heard speaking of atrocities in the various languages she knew off.

"Thanks" Dib said, looking at his sister. "I really appreciate it"

Gaz hit Dib's shoulder. "What are siblings for?" She said with a small smile.

After that small exchange, Dib got Minimoose from the floor and they started to run towards their home. They have an alien to fix. Annnd the cops can't see them there… That would be bad… And there would be too many questions for their liking.

**...**

Upon arriving home Dib and Gaz managed to get Zim's body to their dad's underground home-lab, where Dib managed to cauterize Zim's arm and patch his worst wounds in a hasty fashion as they both were afraid of him getting up.

He was still alive.

"Are you sure he won't wake up?" Gaz asked while looking at a screen in the lab her brother connected to his computer for now.

Zim was currently on top of a surgical table without anything to contain him. If he wakes up now things can get very bad, and very fast...

"Yes. The damage he received is too extensive and it'll take a huge toll on his body and PAK. If his PAK keeps on the low and does not receive any extra power for the next couple hours he'll probably wake up to find some food and go back asleep. But if you plug it right then he will be sleeping for a very long time, until his body recuperates at least" Lard Nar's voice came from the speakers.

"Do you think it would be better if we let him wake up?" Dib asked while he was looking at some blue-prints he was messing around with.

Gaz lifted an eyebrow at that and Lard Nar looked at him as if he was insane. "I mean, if he wakes up ready to jump on someone again it would be dangerous. If he wakes up weak and hungry, I can simply give him food and nurture him back up to his feet. This way he might be less aggressive" The investigator tried to explain what he meant.

"Well…" The Resisty's leader said while scratching his horn. "This would never work with an intelligent creature as they can have a huge array of complex emotions. In this state, I'm unsure if Zim is a simple beast or an intelligent creature… This might work if he's a simple beast, but he might remember your old conflicts and think you're a threat or an enemy. Or he might even wake up and still see you as an enemy of the empire. I simply do not have enough knowledge to give you a proper answer" The Vortian explained while shaking his head.

Dib looked back at Zim. "I think I can deal with him if he's weak" Then he looked at Gaz. "And I think it's the safer option"

Gaz looked at him from her game for some seconds before looking back. "Well. You're the Zim expert, if you believe it, then I believe it" She got down from the counter and started walking upstairs without ever looking away from her screen. "I'm going to take a bath. I'm filthy and covered in alien blood and dirt. You can deal with Zim by yourself now"

"Are you sure you want to do this, Dib?" Lard Nar asked while looking at the youngling after the girl was gone.

"Yes" Dib answered without hesitation in his voice.

Lard Nar sighted knowing he'll regret what he's going to say. "Then I'll trust you. Just. Be careful okay?"

Dib nodded and the Resisty leader signed off. Looking back at Zim once more Dib used his father equipment to get the alien to one of the hidden passageways Gaz showed him, she said dad don't use that entrance much and the teen can use the place as it's big, safe and has a double security door, this way Zim won't escape so easily when Dib goes in or out.

He looked once more at Zim's new form. For a carnivore his teeth are very blunt, his upper left-arm has three sharp talons and a thumb, sharp as well. His next set of arms don't have thumbs but the talons have a darker-green colour; they are longer and sharper than the ones on his upper-arm.

His legs are very long, their bone and muscular structure resemble werewolf legs, but the end of the bone structure is different, while a wolf has long toe bones Zim's bones seem to have an extra set, elongating the bone structure before reaching the toes in a new set of bones. The sharp and round toes of Zim's feet are best suited for grip, probably helping him climb and run in uneven and soft terrain like dirt.

Following his spine, he has a tail that has a very thick base, but it gets thinner very fast and has a very sharp end that looks like one of his upper-hand talons.

Finally, the investigator looked at Zim's right-arm. He lost a huge chunk of it in the explosion… He only has his upper arm now. And the wound, even if it was cauterized, cleaned and properly bandaged, looked very ugly and Dib fears an infection as he will not have anything, he can give the alien to help to heal… And now with his base destroyed things will only get worse if Zim needs specialized treatment.

Alongside Zim, on the small floating table, the lifeless form of Minimoose could be seen. Dib has no idea what power source Zim used on the tiny robot as nothing in his dad's lab seemed to connect to him… So, for now, Minimoose will stay like that, until Zim tells Dib how to fix him at least. And GIR was nowhere to be seen…

Not wanting to think too much about it, Dib decided to focus on the task at hand.

Going through the double door and carefully getting Zim on a small bed of sheets he hastily created in the mostly empty room, the teen then started working on his blueprints again while sitting by Zim's side.

Zim will need a prosthetic arm soon.

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone interested I actually first wrote this fic a long time ago and I recently re-discovered it as, after I posted Horrifying Truth on another fic site and received such positive feedback, I decided to go through my old fics and I found this little Pearl with nine badly written chapters that I'm actually on the course of re-written them.  
> This fic was based on IB by Invader--Zim on DA and I wanted to give her the proper credit for it because IB was the inspiration for Experiment 26-9-13 when I first wrote it some years back. Sadly the fic entered hiatus and October 2016 was the date of her last post where she commented about having some issues with depression.  
> Now, I don't know her whole life story, and what may have happened, but I really hope that she is doing okay now and that she just left the community for some reason... 
> 
> Depression is a serious problem today that should be addressed as such; it is not a simple thing and people need help with it. So, if anyone reading this fic has any problems with depression or a lack of having someone to talk to I'll be more than glad to talk to you as an incognito ear that'll be here when you need it, even if you just need to talk about the weather and feel like a normal human being for some minutes of your day I'll be here... 
> 
> I am no psychologist nor do I know how to deal with full-blown depression cases... But I already had some small episodes of my own on it these past years, as well as some really bad anxiety attacks, when the pressure of an adult life came crashing down on me and I know how (more or less) to keep positive even when you're a pessimist :p


End file.
